Healthy Eating Tips – Part 1

Want to protect your heart? Start with watching what you put in your mouth.

Diet can play a large role in preventing heart disease, a leading cause of death in men and women, or managing an existing problem. A heart-healthy diet means eating foods that help lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and body weight.

Memorial Medical Center’s registered dietitians offer some cooking tips below, as well as a tasty recipe, to help keep you on a heart-healthy path.

Seven Substitutions

• When baking, substitute applesauce for oil at a 1-to-1 ratio to cut calories and fat.
• Instead of butter or stick margarine, use reduced-fat, whipped, or liquid spreads.
• Choose egg whites and egg substitutes instead of egg yolks.
• Pour a glass of skim or 1% milk instead of 2% or whole.
• Choose spinach over lettuce when making a salad. Its levels of magnesium, potassium, and calcium help lower blood pressure.
• Use ground turkey breast or meatless (soy) crumbles instead of ground beef.
• Add salt-free blends and fresh herbs instead of seasoning salt to enhance your meal’s flavors.

Strawberry Cake Roll-Ingredients

• 1 package (16 ounces) Angel Food cake mix
• 2 Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 1 box sugar-free vanilla pudding (cook-and-serve type, 4 serving size)
• 1 box sugar-free strawberry gelatin ( 4 serving size)
• 2 ½ cups cold water
• 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries or unsweetened thawed frozen sliced strawberries
• 1 cup fat-free whipped topping

Directions

• Line a 15×10-inch baking pan with waxed paper. Prepare cake according to package directions. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 5 minutes.
• Turn cake onto a kitchen towel dusted with confectioner’s sugar. Gently peel off waxed paper. Roll up jelly-roll style in the towel, starting with short side. Cool on a wire rack.
• In a saucepan, mix pudding mix, gelatin mix and 2 ½ cups water. Stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from heat. Cool in refrigerator until slightly thickened. Add sliced strawberries to cooled mixture.
• Unroll cake: spread filling evenly over cake to within ½ inch of edges. Roll up. Slice into 14 slices. Serve with 1 tablespoon fat-free whipped topping.
• Yields: 14 slices. Each slice with fat-free whipped topping: 157 calories, 0g fat, 33g carbohydrate.
• Cake roll can also be made with sugar-free raspberry gelatin and raspberries for the filling.