A few weeks ago we wrote about a proposal to change labeling requirements on chocolate milk. The FDA has been petitioned by the dairy industry to remove any indication from the front of pack regarding the milk product’s sweetener source.

Most chocolate milk is sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup, but there are milks sweetened with aspartame, an artificial sweetener of concern to many parents. Currently, artificially sweetened milk requires a front of pack wording “reduced calorie”. The dairy industry would have that clue removed. This is order to encourage school kids to drink more milk. We asked you to petition the FDA not to allow this change.

Yesterday, the professional trade group formerly known as the American Dietetic Association, and today known as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, issued a statement urging the FDA to reject the request of the dairy industry.

This is an interesting development for two reasons:

• The reason provided by AND for its position was technical, not moral. That’s to say, AND found no issue with the confusion this type of label change would cause, or the fact that aspartame is a very controversial sweetener from a safety perspective. In fact AND has no issues with aspartame. What the AND claims is that there is no evidence that changing the front of pack label would encourage an increase in consumption of milk. And “In addition, flavored milk is not a major source of added sugar in children’s diets.” So why even bother. Once can ask, should the AND weigh in on marketing tactics of food companies and their morality?
• The dairy industry is a sponsor of the AND. From past behavior of AND with respect to its sponsors, we expected AND to stay silent. The fact that AND went openly against a sponsor is a very interesting development. We worry that AND is sponsored by junk food companies because it has an effect on what AND says, and more importantly what it does not say when it comes to public health and nutrition policies. That’s why yesterday’s announcement is a positive signal. Perhaps a a next step, AND can have a clearer message when it comes to junk foods and beverages being sold by its other sponsors.

Our recommendations to parents:

• Keep your kids away from artificial sweeteners. They may be safe, but there is enough evidence that they are not. Why take a chance?
• Chocolate milk has 3 teaspoons of added sugar per cup. That’s a lot. If you were to add 3 tsp of sugar to plain milk, it would be way too sweet. Teach your kids to enjoy plain milk, or milk with just one teaspoon of nesquik or some other choco-flavoring.

Let’s admit a sad truth: we Americans are obsessed with french fries. Available at nearly every restaurant and socially acceptable to eat any time of day or night, they are impossibly hard to avoid. The average American consumes close to 30 pounds, or 88 large servings of french fries per year!

This obsession comes with a price! Fries have a high glycemic index, which causes spikes and rapid declines in our blood sugar levels. This translates into a food craving cycle in the best-case scenarios, and in the worst-case scenario can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Factor into this calculation the whopping 25 grams of fat and 350 mg of sodium per medium serving, and you start wondering how you can enjoy a side dish that is just so bad for you.

There are many tasty alternatives out there that can add wholesome nutrients to your meal without causing spikes in your blood sugar or packing on the fat. Scroll down to see the 4 delicious side dishes – all tested and tasted by us:

Quinoa

Source: Mehan's Kitchen

Quinoa sustained the Incas for over 5,000 years and was recently named a “super grain.” With its endless list of benefits – a complete protein, high in fiber, contains iron, lysine, magnesium, Riboflaven (B2) and manganese – you begin to see why it has a nomenclature filled with praise. Sizing in at just 4 grams of fat per cup (prepared) and 8 grams of protein, and with a preparation as simple as cooking rice, it’s easy to see why this side dish knocks the french fry out of the water.

Here’s an easy recipe for Quinoa and Green Bean Salad.

Bulgur

Source: Naturally Ella

Bulgur is a delicious side dish that can be mistaken for rice. It is actually a derivative of wheat. Since it undergoes minimal processing, most of the nutritional value is retained and the benefit for you the eater is that it leaves you feeling fuller. 1 cup of bulgur contains just 151 calories but packs in close to 6 grams of protein. Health benefits include lots of insoluble fiber (8 grams per serving), iron, manganese, magnesium and B vitamins – and all this while measuring in low on the glycemic index when compared to fries. Even  compared to brown rice, bulgur has fewer calories, less fat and more than twice the fiber!

Here is a delicious vegan recipe for bulgur chili.

Sweet Potatoes

Source: A Brown Table

Sweet potatoes have a reputation for being one of the most nutritionally dense foods out there. It’s funny how a vegetable that practically shares its name with the potato has so much more nutritional value than its namesake! One cup has 180 calories and 4 grams of protein. It packs in more than seven times the daily requirement of vitamin A, responsible for maintaining proper eye health. The benefit to getting all of this extra vitamin A is that it can be stored by our body and used later since it is a fat-soluble vitamin. Other nutrients and minerals found in sweet potatoes include (notepads and pens, please) vitamins C, E, K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, the B vitamins, folate, pantothenic acid (breath for air), calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and finally rounding out this list but not completing it, is manganese. Talk about bang for your buck nutrition wise! Let’s not forget that like every side dish recommended in this article, the sweet potato carries a low glycemic load making it a good choice for people with diabetes! These mega vegetables clock in amazing figures for every health measure possible!

French fry lovers will surely enjoy this recipe for Baked Curried Sweet Potato Frites.

Buckwheat

Source: Food and Wine

Buckwheat is one of the more interesting side dishes out there. Also referred to as kasha, this side dish is technically not a grain, but rather a fruit seed. For those of you who have never tried buckwheat before, it has a nutty, earthy flavor. If up until now the side dishes mentioned clocked in between 5 to 8 grams of protein per cup, buckwheat blows this figure out of the water containing a whopping 23 grams! This practically rivals animal based proteins such as chicken breast. But there are some drawbacks – buckwheat contains 583 calories per serving and 6 grams of fat, so this makes for a hefty side dish. Ending however on a good note just one cup of this stuff contains more than half of the amount of the daily recommended intake of fiber, and is also a good source of niacin, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorus, copper and manganese.  Readers with celiac or gluten sensitivities will be delighted to know that this side dish contains no gluten.

Try this recipe for Buckwheat Salad with Mushrooms and Parsley Oil

–

So there you have it, four wonderful side dish alternatives to the french fry. Eat up and enjoy in good health!

What are your favorite healthy sides?

image: microbeworld.org

If you didn’t have the time to read Michael Pollan’s weekend piece for the New York Times Magazine, you missed out on a fantastic overview of the emerging science of the human microbiome. Each time you eat or drink, you are not just feeding yourself, you are also feeding hundreds or thousands of varieties of germs that line your intestines.

Scientists are just beginning to understand some of the inter-dependencies between what we eat, how the bacteria break that down, and various health outcomes. Could diabetes, obesity, and allergies be tied to the bugs in our colon?

The answer is that potentially yes. The American Gut Project is mapping the biome of people’s guts across the country in order to assess the different species of bacteria that exist. You can donate $99 and get your gut mapped too. When comparing the standard American gut to that of indigenous populations in remote locations that have yet to be westernized, we have a much smaller diversity in bacteria than people living closer to nature. Could the diversity in their gut be the reason they rarely get sick, have allergies or get diabetes?

One of the interesting parts of the article talks about how the sterilized fortified food we eat in America is killing the diversity in our gut:

“Fiber is not a single nutrient…which is why fiber supplements are no magic bullet. There are hundreds of different polysaccharides — complex carbohydrates, including fiber — in plants, and different microbes like to chomp on different ones. To boost fiber, the food industry added lots of a polysaccharide called inulin to hundreds of products, but that’s just one kind (often derived from the chicory-plant root) and so may only favor a limited number of microbes. I was hearing instead an argument for a variety of whole grains and a diverse diet of plants and vegetables as well as fruits. The safest way to increase your microbial biodiversity is to eat a variety of polysaccharides…”

What other nutrients are we starving our friendly neighborhood gut bacteria out of by eating the uber processed American diet? If you want you gut to take care of you, you need to take care of it. More whole foods. More vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Add fermented foods too. Eat less processed foods with ingredients that may cause damage to the gut lining.

If you or your children had a Tamaguchi pet in the 90′s, or Neopets online, or the mobile phone equivalent these days, think of your gut as the pet you never had, and treat it right.

Read the article, it’s fascinating.

Carbon monoxide has another interesting property – it can be used on meat and fish to make them look more fresh: the CO molecules delay the discoloration of the flesh that would otherwise indicate it is starting to rot. There is also a small benefit in gassing – it kills some potential parasites. Tilapia, a relatively cheap and healthy fish, reacts very well to treatment with CO. It can be frozen, shipped halfway across the world, and then, when thawed, be put on display and appear “just caught”.

The amount of gas used is tiny, and it does not pose any direct health risk.The problems begin when you buy a fresh looking fish that really isn’t that fresh. Regardless, the European Union and China forbid CO treatment of food. And in the US? you know the answer…

Americans eat about 500 million pounds of tilapia each year. The US sources tilapia mostly from Latin America and from China. Almost all tilapia is farmed. The fish from Latin America are not gassed, the fish from China are. Yes, the Chinese government allows gassing for export, but not for local consumption.

You’re probably thinking, “next time I go shopping, I’ll choose the tilapia from south or central America”. The problem is that in most cases, the origin of the fish is not labeled. Since the amount of tilapia imported from China is about ten-fold what we get from Latin America, it is safe to assume you are getting tilapia+CO.

Bon appetit.

This is a guest post by Jill Castle, RD.

Sally was so worried about her picky toddler not eating enough that she was constantly offering him different food options, to the point he was overwhelmed and his eating got worse. Sally didn’t know that the more you push the picky toddler to accept food, the less he may eat.

Sean didn’t like to see his kids wasting food. He insisted they finish their meal, especially the vegetables and milk. As a result, dinners were drawn out to a painfully long hour, with some drama thrown in. Sean didn’t realize that enforcing a “finish your healthy food” rule may backfire, leading children to learn the skill of overeating or making them more picky in their food selections.

Kim didn’t say anything when her daughter, Lori, converted to diet soda at age fifteen, in an attempt to control her calorie intake, and maybe even lose some weight. Lori wasn’t getting the results she wanted, so she upped her efforts and cut out sweets and junk food, and insisted on eating salads at lunch and dinner. Instead of being silenced with fear, Kim needed to step in and guide her child because dieting during the teen years often leads to weight gain over time, not loss, and increases the risk of disordered eating.

As a parent of a child, don’t you wish you had a crystal ball and could predict these challenges, as well as the impact of your responses on the outcome? Don’t you wish you knew how to handle these things now, when you can do something about it, rather than later, when the issue is rooted and difficult to change?

Even though we know more now about food and nutrition than ever before, information (over-) load has mired us in confusion, doubt and fear. Confusion about the ever-changing nutrition research, doubt about our cooking and feeding skills, and fear that we are making nutrition mistakes with our kids that will last a lifetime.

Yet, getting food right is only one piece of the feeding puzzle. In fact, if you’re under the impression that the right food will cure picky eating, weight problems and feeding struggles, you’re headed down the wrong road. But, you’re not alone. Many parents are heading down this trail, and it’s full of frustration, dead ends and detours. Parents on this road are really in a round-about, circling around the real solution that is literally at their fingertips.

Today’s parents need information that will transform their food and feeding experience with their children, for the better, something food could never do alone. Each of the parents above need a comprehensive approach to feeding their kids, one that addresses the WHOLE child, not just the food they eat. This is where we come in—to help you on your feeding journey. Because, after all, raising healthy eaters is a journey.

Introducing Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School! Fearless Feeding helps you master the WHAT of feeding kids (food and nutrition), HOW to do it in the most positive, effective ways, and WHY kids behave (predictably in many cases) the way they do around food.

Unlike any nutrition book on the market today, Fearless Feeding looks at the big picture through a long-term lens, helping parents be successful and confident when it comes to food, feeding their child, and the inevitable developmental stages kids go through. We’ve translated the science into actionable steps, filled the book with stories, recipes and charts to help you put the joy back into one of your most primary jobs as a parent: feeding your child.

To find out more about the book, click here. To order your copy today, click here.

Jill Castle is a registered dietitian, mom of 4, and creator of Just the Right Byte. She is co-creator of the Fearless Feeding Community and co-author of the book Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. You can find more about Jill Castle.

First there came the gummy bear candy that kids loved so much. Then came the gummy bear multivitamin for kids. And now, a gummy multivitamin for adults. Because, you know, we don’t eat healthy enough.

We’ve been approached several times by the SmartyPants PR firm to write about their product, and recently noticed many esteemed members of the nutrition community write about this product as well. The PR firm is certainly earning its retainer.

So what’s so special about this product?

• It’s novel – they combined the fun of a gummy bear with the multivitamin content for an adult
• It’s got all the buzzword nutrients wrapped into one (actually six) gummy droplets – multivitamin, omega 3, and vitamin D
• No bad ingredients that some other supplements have such as HFCS or artificial colors
• Gluten free and eco-friendly (omega 3 sourced from sardines, not tuna or salmon)

All the above are great, once you’ve decided to take a multivitamin.

But should you?

Probably not.

You see, nutrients are best absorbed by the body when they come in their natural package – leafy greens, fresh glass of milk, a salmon steak, or fresh berries. The fact that a multivitamin contains over 100% of your daily value of a nutrient does not guarantee your body will absorb those nutrients completely.

So why is the supplement industry raking in billions of dollars in revenue every year? For the same reason the insurance industry is – fear. People are scared that they are not eating healthy, that their bodies are not getting enough ____________ (fill in the blank). A multivitamin is like an insurance policy for my health, you may say.

A daily dose of Smartypants will cost you about one dollar. $7 a week. If you’re a couple – $14 a week. How many more fruits and vegetables can you buy with $14?

It’s no secret that Europe has firmly denied genetic modification into its food system. There are no GMO foods in the UK, France, or Germany. Unfortunately, The United States’ weak regulatory and safety frameworks, coupled with corporate funded politicians have allowed GMO ingredients into a high percentage of US foods.

The numbers are staggering: 93% of soy and 88% of corn in the US are genetically modified. Soy and corn are staples of the American diet, with their derivative ingredients omnipresent in many foods found on supermarket shelves.

But that could change, and not because of any safety, moral, or social concerns at the USDA, FDA, or Congress. Nope, something much more powerful – MONEY.

You see, the US and the European Union (EU) are trade partners. Negotiations are now taking place for a $100 billion trade agreement. And food is a substantial portion of international trade. However, Europe is reluctant to import foods from the US:

The EU looks down on American food safety and production practices, and with good reason. American meat production is heavily reliant on chemicals, from hormones to chlorine-bleach baths, and European officials and consumers largely reject these treatments and standards…

…the EU has enough clout to finally convince the US government to clean up America’s food supply, long given over to factory farming and the economic demands of agribusiness. If America wants to export more beef, chicken and crops to the European Union, it will have to make better products. The EU won’t stand for the ones we’re peddling now. Read more from the Guardian…

Get it? Europe doesn’t want our food because it is sub-par! If the export opportunity becomes promising enough, perhaps American farmers will start growing more non-GMO crops.

It is worth noting that a US consumer pays the lowest percentage of available income for food compared to any other country in the world – just 9%. In France it’s almost double. Such cheap prices come at a cost, paid later on to our health care system.

Whether the US and EU negotiators will find common ground for a food trade deal, we should ask ourselves, how is it that the governments of European countries have been able to protect their citizens’ food standards, while ours has not.

image: Forbes

One of the biggest problems we consumers have with nutrition, is the seemingly ever changing and conflicting advice dispensed to us from experts. Fat was once evil, now it’s not. Eggs were the devil, now they are not.

Will salt be the next nutrient to experience a renaissance?

Salt, or more precisely, the sodium in salt, is a required nutrient for proper bodily function. The problem is that we consume too much, to the point of deleterious health effects such as high blood pressure. For years, we’ve been told that our American diet is too high in sodium and that we must reduce consumption. The average American eats food with 3,400 milligram of sodium, while the recommended maximum level is 2,300 mg. For some populations (African Americans, people over the age of 50, people with chronic disease such as diabetes) the maximum level recommended is 1500 mg. These groups account for almost 50% of the population.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) was recently commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), to review studies on the matter.  The group found  faults in study design and comparisons among the various studies that led to potentially wrong recommendations. An IOM report released yesterday, may have just thrown a wrench into current sodium intake guidelines:

“These new studies support previous findings that reducing sodium from very high intake levels to moderate levels improves health,” said [IOM] committee chair Brian Strom, George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Here’s the “wrench” part:

“But they also suggest that lowering sodium intake too much may actually increase a person’s risk of some health problems.”

More precisely, the IOM states:

The healthy, young population should reduce sodium intake to the 2,300mg level. Reduction to the 1,500mg level does not seem to have any positive or negative effects. Further research is required.

The subgroups (African American, those over 50, people with diabetes, heart issues, and kidney disease should reduce sodium intake to 2,300mg. Reduction to the 1,500mg level does not seem to have any positive or negative effects. Further research is required.

For only one specific subgroup – people with with mid- to late-stage heart failure who are receiving aggressive treatment for their disease – reduction below 2,300mg may have adverse health effects.

Bottom line: unless you are receiving aggressive treatment for advanced heart disease, you must reduce your sodium intake to the 2,300mg mark, and can reduce it further to 1,500mg. The easiest way to reduce sodium intake is to eat less processed foods. Cook at home.

This is a guest blog post by Carol Harvey, Director of food/nutrition labeling and product development at Palate Works.

There’s something about numbers in table format – they look so official, so accurate. But nutrition data, because of the nature of food itself, is inherently inaccurate. Foods vary in nutrition based on ripeness/season, conditions/time in transport or storage, the method and time cooked or processed, varying sizes and densities of harvested foods, inexact measuring/portioning by humans and machines, etc. Then there are the much bigger data breaches that come from human error and ignorance, and these can go unnoticed for years.

Vitamin C is one of the nutrients frequently over- (and occasionally under-) reported, even by seemingly reputable sources (e.g., USDA, large food companies, etc.).  Anyone familiar with the chemistry of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) knows why. It’s unstable in a variety of environments – water, air, heat, alkali – i.e., most of the things that are done to food (including what you might do with it at home) during processing, storage and/or heating before eating.

The following are just a few of the many examples of bad C data that can be found on store shelves and in the USDA database (which is then uploaded by nutrition software programs, apps, etc.).

Planters Nut-rition Antioxidant Mix

-       Contains:  almonds, sugar, dried banana, dried peaches, cashews, dried blueberries, vegetable oil, dried cranberries, citric acid, natural flavor

-       Label shows 10% of Daily Value (DV) for vitamin C (that’s the minimum required to make a “good source” claim or antioxidant claim).

-       Our lab test showed only 4% of DV for vitamin C (even for the 32-gram serving size shown on the label, vs. FDA’s 28-g standard for such a snack). This is not surprising, because most of the vitamin C in fresh produce is lost during drying, and dried fruit is barely half of the product, anyway. (We’re guessing the product has some undeclared ascorbic acid added for its preservative effects, because it’s unlikely the dried fruit would provide any vitamin C.)

Navitas Dried Mulberries

-       Contains:  dried mulberries (not freeze-dried)

-       Label shows 130% DV for vitamin C (impossible for air-dried whole fruit).

-       Our lab test showed 9% DV (rounds up to 10%, so they could get away with calling it a “good source,” but definitely not an “excellent source,” and far from 130% DV).

-       This is probably an example of someone using the easily-available data for raw berries, rather than paying for a lab test of the dried fruit… and not realizing there is a BIG difference.

Acai Roots Acai Powder

-       Contains:  freeze-dried acai berry

-       Label shows 15% DV for vitamin C.

-       Fresh acai does not have much vitamin C, so freeze-dried definitely will not be a good source.

-       Even Navitas’ Freeze-Dried Acai Powder shows 0% DV for C (although they make unsupported claims that the powder is a good source of antioxidants and amino acids).

Trader Joe’s Dried, Sweetened Kiwi

-       Contains:  dried kiwifruit and sugar

-       Label shows 50% DV for vitamin C (which would be more than an “excellent source”)

-       Again, air-dried fruit loses most of its vitamin C; 50% is impossible… actual is probably 0% DV. Someone was probably using data for fresh kiwi.

Smart Juice Pear Juice

-       Contains:  organic pear juice (web site says “nothing added”)

-       Label shows 100% DV for vitamin C.

-       Pears (like apples) don’t contain much vitamin C, even when fresh, and after processing (all packaged juices have to be at least flash pasteurized to be made safe for even a refrigerated shelf life of one week, and this product is bottled for much longer/non-refrigerated storage) there would be none = 0 vitamin C.

-       This company has labeling problems galore. Some of the tip-offs to bad data are the rounding violations (e.g., stating sodium data and %DVs with a decimal point), the customer testimonials with “cure” claims, and fiber content above 0 (by definition, a “pressed” juice has the fiber removed, so none of the juices should show any, but most of them do).

Trader Joe’s Steamer Clams

-       Contains:  clams, butter, garlic, modified corn starch, natural butter flavor, lemon, parsley, citric acid, spices

-       Label shows 10% DV for vitamin C (this would make it a “good source”) in 33 g cooked clam meat.

-       The tiny amount of “lemon” in here is the only ingredient that “might” provide vitamin C (at least until cooked). Turns out the error comes from USDA’s steamed clam data, which the manufacturer of this product evidently used for their nutrition analysis. Clams (especially after cooking) have no appreciable vitamin C, but the USDA database shows 22 mg (25% DV for vitamin C) in 100 g of steamed clams, and 10 mg in 100 g of breaded/fried clams… but they show 0 vitamin C in any amount of raw clams! You can’t ADD vitamin C by cooking something (the opposite would happen).

-       Meanwhile, if you go online and search for “steamed clams” or clam chowder you will find this error copied pretty much everywhere, except by companies, such as Campbell’s, that do their own lab testing.

Trader Joe’s Gluten-free 3 Cheese Pizza with fresh Roma tomatoes

-       This is an example of a frozen product that you obviously wouldn’t eat as-is, out of the box without cooking, but the nutrition data is for just that – the raw, uncooked ingredients.

-       Label shows 15% DV for vitamin C.

-       Because there are fresh tomatoes on the pizza, it contains vitamin C, or at least until cooked. At that point, the vitamin C is close to 0.

-       Nutrition Facts data is often for the uncooked product; after cooking, the nutrition for certain nutrients (especially vitamin C) will be much lower… or 0.

How to “C” the above information:

Don’t look to processed/cooked foods to provide your vitamin C. Unless it has been added in a stable form, it isn’t there in any significant amount, even if the label shows it (a rare exception is when the source is a freeze-dried fruit/berry). The best sources are fresh fruits and vegetables in season:  strawberries, mangoes, citrus, papaya, kiwi, broccoli, bell/chili peppers, etc.

Next up: Foods with under-reported nutrients (yes, that happens too).

Carol Harvey has been a nutrition labeling and product development consultant for over 15 years. She can be reached at palatemail [AT] yahoo [DOT] com.

This is a guest post by Michelle Dudash, R.D.

Every parent knows what a struggle it can be to get dinner on the table night after night-they want to prepare healthy meals for their families, but picky eaters, busy schedules, and way-too-long cooking times always seem to stand in the way.

That’s why I wrote CLEAN EATING FOR BUSY FAMILIES. This recipe book takes the challenge out of putting delicious food on the table every night by providing readers with a clear plan for dinner success.

My book includes streamlined weekly grocery lists, simple-yet-delicious recipes, and practical tips for healthy family eating. Don’t settle for another uninspired takeout. Opt for  wholesome meals that don’t just put the tummies to ease, but the mind as well.

Here are three recipes the folks at Fooducate asked me to share with you:

1. Super Simple Summer Squash Sauté

This recipe is ridiculously simple, yet delivers a burst of flavor. You can slice the vegetables into half-moons instead of dicing them, if you prefer. Adjust the cooking time as needed.

1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons (2 g) dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon (3 g) minced garlic
2 medium zucchini, diced into ½-inch
(1.3 cm) cubes (about 2½ cups, or 300 g)
2 medium yellow summer squash, diced into ½-inch (1.3 cm) cubes (about 2½ cups, or 300 g)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large frying pan over medium-low heat and pour in the oil. Sprinkle in the onion flakes and garlic and cook for 15 seconds until aromatic. Add the remaining ingredients and sauté until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Total Prep and Cook Time: 15 minutes • Yield: 6 servings, ¾ cup (approx. 100 g) each

Per serving: 45 calories; 2 g total fat; trace saturated fat; 1 g protein; 5 g carbohydrate; 2 g dietary fiber; 0 mg cholesterol.

2. Hearty Pinto & Kidney Bean Tamale Pie

Half chili, half cornbread, this dish is satisfying and delicious. Feel free to use cornbread mix as a shortcut, with enough batter for six muffins being the ideal amount to pour on top.

For Filling:

1 tablespoon (15 ml) expeller-pressed grapeseed or canola oil
1 small onion, finely diced (about 1 cup, or 160 g)
2 teaspoons (6 g) minced garlic
1 (15-ounce, or 425 g) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce, or 425 g) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5-ounce, or 390 g) can diced tomatoes with green pepper, celery, and onion
2 teaspoons (5 g) chili powder
2 tablespoons (28 ml) lime juice
2 tablespoons (28 ml) reduced sodium soy sauce
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For topping:

½ cup (70 g) whole-grain corn flour or fine-ground whole-grain cornmeal
½ cup (60 g) whole-wheat pastry flour (or white whole-wheat flour)
2 teaspoons (9 g) baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (120 ml) low-fat milk
1 large egg
3 tablespoons (45 ml) canola oil
1½ teaspoons (10 g) light agave nectar

Garnishes: salsa, plain Greek yogurt, and avocado slices

Total Prep and Cook Time: 50 minutes • Yield: 6 servings, 1 piece each

Per serving: 320 calories; 11 g total fat; 1 g saturated fat; 13 g protein; 38 g carbohydrate; 8g dietary fiber; 2 mg cholesterol.

Preheat oven to 425ºF (220ºC, or gas mark 7).

To Make the Filling: Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add oil. When oil begins to shimmer, add onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, chili powder, lime juice, soy sauce, and pepper and stir, cooking until hot. Spread evenly into a 9 x 9-inch (23 x 23 cm) baking dish.

To Make the Topping: Stir together flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine milk, egg, oil, and agave nectar in a small bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Pour batter over filling and spread evenly, manipulating as little as possible to avoid overworking. Bake until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and then cut into 6 servings.

Serve with salsa, yogurt, or avocado toppings.

Go Clean

Whole-grain corn flour or cornmeal includes the germ, giving it 4 to 5 grams of fiber per serving, versus just 2 grams in “enriched and degerminated” varieties.

3. Peanut Brittle Cookie Bars with Dark Chocolate drizzle

Part candy, part cookie, these bars are so delicious you won’t want to eat just one. You can play around with other nuts in this recipe, such as almonds, pistachios, and pecans.

For crust:

1¼ cups (105 g) fine whole-grain graham cracker crumbs (about 12 squares)
3 tablespoons (45 ml) expeller-pressed grapeseed or canola oil
2 tablespoons (40 g) honey

For Filling:

1/ 3 cup (115 g) honey
¼ cup (60 g) packed light brown sugar
1/ 8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons (42 g) cold butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon (15 ml) coconut milk or heavy whipping cream
2 cups (290 g) unsalted dry roasted peanuts

For chocolate drizzle:

1/ 3 cup (58 g) dark or semisweet chocolate chips

Total Prep and Cook Time: 35 minutes, plus cooling • Yield: 16 bars, 1 each

Per serving: 240 calories; 16 g total fat; 4 g saturated fat; 5 g protein; 22 g carbohydrate; 2 g dietary fiber; 6 mg cholesterol.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC, or gas mark 4) and generously coat a 9 x 9-inch (23 x 23 cm) baking pan with canola oil spray.

To Make the Crust: Whir the graham crackers in a food processor until they are the consistency of fine crumbs and with the motor running, drizzle in the oil and honey. Spread mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan and press it firmly with your hands. Bake for 12 minutes until fragrant and surface appears dry. Cool for at least a few minutes.

To Make the Filling: Increase oven temperature to 375ºF (190ºC, or gas mark 5). Bring honey, sugar, and salt to a boil in a medium pot over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves, and then boil for 2 minutes without stirring. Add butter and coconut milk and boil for 1 minute, stirring. Remove from heat and fold in the peanuts, coating them completely. Spread peanuts evenly over the crust and bake until bubbly and golden, about 16 minutes. Cool completely.

To Make the Chocolate Drizzle: Microwave the chocolate chips in a bowl, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Dip a fork into the chocolate and with a flick of your wrist, splatter the chocolate over the peanuts in a diagonal pattern. Cool and cut into 16 rectangular or diamond shaped bars. Secretly Skinny Sweet Treats

Go Clean

The darker the chocolate, the higher the percentage of cocoa, which means more antioxidant-rich polyphenols. Also, dark chocolate usually contains less added sugar.

Michelle Dudash, R.D., is an award-winning registered dietitian, cookbook author, Cordon Bleu-certified chef, healthy recipe columnist for The Arizona Republic and television personality. As a busy career-loving mom, Michelle understands what millions of families face every night as they struggle to put a healthy meal on the table in minutes.