Best Nutrition for Your Buck

Dr. Katz's 5 Healthy Eating Tips

By Glenn Mueller
eDiets Senior Writer

Nationally renowned health expert Dr. David Katz has some encouraging news about nutritious eating: "We should be able to get to health by pursuing pleasure and pleasure by pursuing health."

An associate professor of public health practice at the Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Katz is also a medical contributor for ABC News. When he isn't busy appearing on programs like Good Morning America, 20/20 and other ABC programming, Dr. Katz writes regular nutrition columns for The New York Times and O, The Oprah Magazine. He is also the author of nine best-selling books to date, including The Way to Eat. (This innovative book, which was created in cooperation with the American Dietetic Association, provides all the tips and strategies you need to take control of your weight for life. To find out more about his online diet plan, click here.)

Recently, this popular expert sat down with eDiets to dish out generous portions of advice about healthy eating. According to Dr. Katz, the connection between health and pleasure begins with fresh foods.

"The cultures around the world that have some of the best cuisine and some of the best health place a strong emphasis on fresh and locally-grown food, and I think we should learn something from them," he says.

Getting The Best Nutrition for Your Buck
One of Dr. Katz's general guidelines about nutrition is to eat foods that are closer to nature, including plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains. He emphasizes that incorporating such foods into your diet can lower your risk for heart disease, cancer and premature death. In order to increase your intake of fresh foods, Dr. Katz suggests buying produce at family-owned farms whenever possible.

Are you ready to sink your teeth into a new lifestyle, one that will help you drop pounds and improve your health? Try one of our 24 super diets. To get the ball rolling, simply visit eDiets and fill out a free profile.

"Here, where I live in Connecticut, we have a lot of small farms," he says. "So throughout the growing season, we have opportunities for locally-grown corn, tomatoes and lettuce."

Though he generally recommends buying organic foods, Dr. Katz says eating a nutritious diet is the most important thing to remember.

"If you can afford to buy organic foods, it is a lovely thing to do," he says. "But if you can't, what I tell my patients is, ‘Don't make perfect the enemy of good.' Get the best nutrition your buck can afford."

Be a Nutrition Detective
Personally, Dr. Katz believes navigating the product ingredient lists and nutrition facts panels is too much work for the average consumer. In fact, he's been working on developing a set of symbols that will reflect the overall nutritional value of foods.

"My hope is that this will come soon to a supermarket near you, and you won't have to do the heavy lifting yourself," Dr. Katz says.

In the meantime, he has implemented an educational program in elementary schools around the country called "Nutrition Detectives." This innovative approach narrows everything you need to know in order to find healthy products down to five basic clues.

"Since the average 8-year-old can remember these, I think just about anybody can put them to good use," Dr. Katz says.

Now, in this eDiets exclusive, Dr. Katz shares his 5 tips for deciphering food labels.

1. Never Trust the Front of the Package. No matter how enticing the claims on the front of that bag, box, bottle or can may seem, you need to spin that package around in order to get to the truth. "Always look at the ingredient list and the nutrition facts," Dr. Katz advises. "That's the only place on a food package where you are guaranteed to get the truth… and nothing but the truth."

2. Pay Attention to the First Ingredient. Remember the ingredients are listed in order of abundance. Therefore, Dr. Katz advises consumers to pay careful attention to the first item on an ingredient list. "In a breakfast cereal, if the first ingredient is sugar, you have to ask yourself whether this is really a cereal product. I think if the first ingredient is sugar, it is a sugar product. That means it is more like a dessert."

3. Beware of Common Public Enemies. There are certain ingredients people should be certain to avoid at all cost. Dr. Katz says public enemies number one and two are partially hydrogenated oil and high fructose corn syrup. Other ingredients to look out for are artificial ingredients of any kind, especially those with long, chemical names. "You have to find them in a crowded ingredient list, and that's kind of like looking for Waldo in the ‘Where's Waldo' game," he says. "It is looking for a familiar face in a big crowd. But, in this case, when you find partially hydrogenated oil in a crowded ingredient list, step away from the box and nobody will get hurt."

4. Look for a Short Ingredient List. According to Dr. Katz, this fourth clue is the most important one. "If someone were to ask me for just one tip about reading labels, I would tell them to look for a short ingredient list," Dr. Katz says. "In almost any food category, the shorter the ingredient list, the more wholesome the product." After all, he says, the foods that have the shortest ingredient lists of all are perfectly natural foods. For instance, the ingredient list in a banana is "banana"… and that's it!

5. Look for Whole Grains and Fiber. The fifth and final clue pertains only to grain products, such as breads, cereals, granola bars, chips and crackers. This one is really two clues in one. First of all, Dr. Katz suggests looking for the word "whole" in the ingredient list. "If something says wheat bread, that doesn't mean it is whole-wheat bread," he says. The next indicator of whether or not a product is a good source of whole grains is the amount of fiber it contains. "Fiber is your friend," Dr. Katz advises. "Look for 2 grams or more for every 100 calories to know that you are getting a decent whole grain."

Those are Dr. Katz's tips for kids and adults alike to help make better choices when stocking the pantry, refrigerator or freezer. Once you start making better choices, he says the additive effect on the quality of your overall diet can be absolutely huge. And yet, you won't have to make any major sacrifices.

"You are not giving up chips; you're just finding better ones," Dr. Katz says. "You're not giving up cookies; you're just picking better ones. So it is an important principle that ties back in with the philosophy I started with. Basically, you want to get to health by pursuing pleasure, and get pleasure in the pursuit of health."

Would you like to listen to more of our conversation with Dr. David Katz? Click here to hear the eDiets podcast! (Note: This will open in your computer's default media player.)

To find out more information about Dr. David Katz, click here.