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Show La v 1 Doctor in the Kitcherf by Laurence M. Hursh, M.D. Consultant, National Dairy Council RATING SNACK FOODS Busy days demand balanced diets if you are to be healthy. And hurried snacks can cause problems, especially if you settle for snacks such as candy or cookies. cook-ies. They can bring quick relief from hunger pains but by themselves them-selves candy and cookies cannot give you the total nourishment you need. The best snacks should be chosen from the wide variety of foods offered by the four groups. Real food value will be yours because they contain some of the essential protein, minerals and vitamins you need each day. Four Food Groups The milk group of foods includes, in-cludes, of course, cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream and other snacks containing dairy foods. The meat group includes fish, eggs, cheese, dry beans (such as baked beans) and dry peas, nuts, and peanut butter. The fruits and vegetables group offers citrus fruit or juices, melon, mel-on, strawberries, tomato or tomato toma-to juice, dark green or deep yellow yel-low vegetables, or yellow fruit. And finally in the bread and cereals group there are bread, rolls, and ready-to-eat cereals which are whole grain or enriched, en-riched, spaghetti, cornbread, rice; and tortillas. Sticky Sweet Foods? Sticky sweet foods are to be avoided as snacks unless you want to promote more cavities in your teeth. Instead, choose "detergent" "de-tergent" foods for snacking such as apple, salads, raw vegetables, or whole wheat bread. These foods help you to clear debris from between your teeth. How can you rate snacks? Well, according to a one to four star system (like rating movies), here are some thoughts I have: Good protein snacks that rate three or four stars include milk, cheese, tomato soup made with milk, cheeseburger on a bun, taco with ground beef filling, bologna, chicken, ham, liver sausage, hard-cook hard-cook egg, and roasted peanuts. Calcium & Iron Among the calcium snacks I would recommend are milk, cheese, tomato soup made with milk and cheeseburger. Good snacks for iron include cheeseburger, cheese-burger, taco with ground beef filling, dried apricots, with meat snacks, eggs, and tomato juice as runners-up. Vitamin A snacks are tomato soup, liver sausage, dried apricots, apri-cots, carrots, and tomatos. Thiamine Thia-mine is yours if you eat tacos, ham, cauliflower, or oranges. Meanwhile, milk, tomato soup made with milk, cheeseburger, taco made with beef, ham, liver sausage, roasted peanuts and tomatos are rich in riboflavin. And for vitamin C choose tomato toma-to soup, sausage pizza, oranges, carrots, green pepper, califlower and tomatos. As you see, some of the foods appear as good sources of several nutrients. All could be either snacks or part of your regular meals. And that's the main point: Snacks shouldn't be different from regular foods. They should come from the same inventory of foods as your other meals. Then when you put all your daily eating eat-ing together, it will make sense in both nourishment, and pleasure. |