Nutrition basics (18)
- Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy diet
- Added sugar: Don't get sabotaged by sweeteners
- Caffeine: How much is too much?
- see all in Nutrition basics
Healthy diets (7)
- DASH diet: Top 5 tips for dining out
- DASH diet: Top 5 tips for shopping and cooking
- Sample menus for the DASH eating plan
- see all in Healthy diets
Healthy cooking (15)
- Meatless meals: The benefits of eating less meat
- Healthy meals: Cooking for 1 or 2
- Beans and other legumes: Types and cooking tips
- see all in Healthy cooking
Healthy menus and shopping strategies (9)
- Healthy breakfast: Quick, flexible options to grab at home
- Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid: A sample menu
- Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious?
- see all in Healthy menus and shopping strategies
Nutritional supplements (2)
- Dietary supplements: Nutrition in a pill?
- Herbal supplements: What to know before you buy
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
continued:
Recipe makeovers: 5 ways to create healthy recipes
4. Change the method of preparation
Healthy cooking techniques — such as braising, broiling, grilling and steaming — can capture the flavor and nutrients of your food without adding excessive amounts of fat, oil or sodium. If your recipe calls for frying the ingredients in oil or butter, try baking, broiling or poaching the food instead. If the directions say to baste the meat or vegetables in oil or drippings, use wine, fruit juice, vegetable juice or fat-free vegetable broth instead. Using nonstick pans or spraying pans with nonstick cooking spray will further reduce the amount of fat and calories added to your meals.
5. Change the portion size
No matter how much you reduce, switch or omit ingredients, some recipes may still be high in sugar, fat or salt. In these cases, reduce the amount of that food you eat. Smaller portions have less fat, calories and sodium and allow you to eat a wider variety of foods during a meal. Eating a variety of foods will ensure that you get all the energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber you need.
Putting it all together
As you look over your recipe, decide what to change and how to change it. Make notes of any alterations, so you can refer to them the next time you prepare the food. You may have to make the recipe a few times, adjusting your alterations, before you get the results you want. But finding the right combination of ingredients — for the desired taste, consistency and nutrients — is well worth the trouble.
The following muffin recipe shows a before-and-after ingredient list. Incorporating a few small changes can make a big difference in the amount of fat, calories and sodium per serving.
(2 of 2)
- USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 20. U.S. Department of Agriculture. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/. Accessed Sept. 10, 2008.
- Duyff RL. American Dietetic Association: Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. 3rd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons; 2006:306-325.
- University of California-Los Angeles Center for Human Nutrition. Encyclopedia of Foods: A Guide to Healthy Nutrition. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press; 2002:126-129.
