Patient was educated on foods to avoid on a healthy meal as follows:
- Avoid having unhealthy appetizers like nachos, fried jalapeno poppers, fried ravioli, fried mozzarella, fried avocado, or fried zucchini chips. Choose from healthier options, such as, vegetable rolls, hummus, cucumbers, grilled shrimp with salsa, or broth-based soup for appetizers. Avoid adding any cream to your salad & soup to help avoid intake of unwanted & extra calories.
- Rely more on seasonings, herbs, and spices and avoid adding extra fat to flavor the foods. Use extra onion, garlic, lemon, sage, black pepper, basil, cumin, coriander, parsley and barbeque sauce for seasoning, instead of any high fat sauce, can add to reducing the calorie consumption.
- While using sauce for flavoring your food, try using low calorie sauces, such as, marinara sauce, sweet and sour sauce, or homemade barbeque sauce versus creamy white sauce, pesto sauce, or tartar sauce, which are high on calorie count.
- Choosing cottage cheese or low-fat cheese over regular cheese can help with cutting down on calorie consumption. Use low-fat cheese for making a sandwich, versus regular cheese.
- Choosing low fat or fat free alternatives on milk and milk products, such as, yogurt and butter milk, versus whole milk, whole fat yogurt, and whole fat butter milk can help with cutting down on calorie consumption.
