Nutrition Starts Here: Smart Eating on a Budget

Gr 6 Up—In four short segments, chef Marshall O'Brien addresses the audience from his kitchen on the benefits of healthy eating. The first and longest episode concerns crock-pot or slow-cooker cooking as a means of saving time and money. O'Brien addresses safety issues, from adding enough liquid to testing for temperature and properly preheating the appliance. He prepares two simple dishes using meats and vegetables. The discussion on portion size introduces the United States Department of Agriculture's MyPlate concept, with a visual illustrating that half a plate should contain fruits and vegetables, complemented by a quarter part protein and a quarter part grain. Also, the chef presents a useful rule of thumb for measuring portion size: a half cup is approximately equal to a handful and a cup uses both hands. The simply stated message of the "Label Reading" segment is to choose items with more food ingredients as opposed to chemicals, to opt for words that you recognize, and to choose fare with fewer ingredients. "Tasty Whole Grains" makes the case for eating whole grains as a means of gaining consistent energy and feeling full longer, as well as for their acting as "nature's broom" in sweeping waste from the body. Whole grains are defined as those in which the bran and germ are not removed from the endosperm of the grain, which makes them more nutritious.