Posted Jan 16, 2010
Cook more meals at home, eat healthier and exercise more are all common New Year’s resolutions.
One way to eat healthier is to choose lean protein sources.
Gail Posner, a registered dietitian and owner of Healthy Ways Nutrition in West Bloomfield, says fish is a great source of lean protein. And salmon is a nutrition all-star because of its good fats.
“Those fattier fishes such as salmon are loaded with omegas 3s, which we know are important to our health,” says Posner.
When buying salmon, Posner recommends choosing wild salmon. Posner says that many canned and pouched salmons are wild and are “very easy to incorporate into one’s healthy eating plans.”
Many of her clients shy away from seafood because they don’t know how to prepare it or think it will smell or have a fishy taste. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
“Shrimp is one of the easiest to prepare, and there is no fish smell,” says Posner. “A lot of my clients like that aspect of shrimp, and you can buy it fresh, frozen or already cooked.”
For milder tasting fish, Posner says cod or tilapia are good choices. But choosing a lean-protein fish is only part of the equation. You also need to know healthy ways to prepare it.
You can wrap the fish in foil and bake in the oven or on the grill. You can also pan saute the fish, like today’s skillet salmon recipe, but try to use as little oil as possible. Fish doesn’t take long to cook, and the general rule is to cook fish 10 minutes per 1 inch of thickness.
Other sources of lean protein to consider are egg whites and lean chicken or turkey breast. With the meats, be sure to read the label and check the fat content.
“For it to be considered a very lean protein, it should be 97% fat-free or higher,” says Posner.
If you want to learn about healthier food options, check out one of Posner’s grocery store tours.
Contact SUSAN M. SELASKY: 313-222-6432 or
sselasky@freepress.com
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