Makeover Your Pantry to Upgrade Your Health
If you're here and reading this post, chances are you're interested in maintaining or improving your health, When building good health habits, it helps to have the right tools in place. A better-stocked pantry is the secret to making better choices more often.
In my house, that pantry door is opened 1,000 times a day by my husband or kids looking for a snack, or by me searching for ingredients to make a healthy last minute meal. While we all have different food preferences, here are a few tips on how to build a healthier pantry:
Canned Food. A lot of shelf-stable items contain significant added salt, sugar and artificial ingredients as preservatives. Always make sure to read the nutrition facts on the label to see what's added. For items like canned beans, peas, or artichoke hearts, you can reduce the sodium by about 40% if you rinse them. But be careful for canned soups, broth, and vegetable juices like tomato juice as these are often packed with sodium that cannot be rinsed away. Go for low-sodium versions of these staples. If you have a condition like Cystic Fibrosis, you may actually need to take in more sodium, so the regular versions are fine. Most of us, however, would benefit from reducing our sodium consumption from canned an packaged foods.
As for freshness, canned food is actually fine as long as you buy BPA-free cans. BPA is a chemical that is found in cans and food containers and can have harmful effects on your endocrine system. Canned food typically goes from farm to package in about 5 hours, while fresh produce takes an average of 24 days to get from farm to store. So, in some cases, canned can be better if you are mindful additives.
Chips, Pretzels and Dried Veggies. When choosing crackers and pretzels, read the label to make sure the first ingredient is either whole grain flour, seeds or beans. Then avoid artificial ingredients and too much added salt and sugar. Excess consumption of packaged/processed foods has been linked to health issues like heart disease and obesity. There are lots of healthier varieties of crackers just waiting to be paired with healthy nut butters, organic cheese and veggie dips like hummus. Also, dried "veggie snacks" have become popular, but make sure they actually contain veggies as the first ingredient and not an overload of sugar and salt.
Seasonings and Sauces. Bottled dressings and sauces are typically a hiding place for excess sodium and sugar, so label reading is crucial here. For example, soy sauce and hot sauce are loaded with sodium, so seek out low-sodium varieties for your pantry. Ketchup and bottled dressings usually contain a lot of hidden sugar, so I recommend stocking extra virgin olive oil or even walnut oil and vinegar to make your own dressing. Yellow and stone-ground varieties of mustard are fine, but beware of flavored mustard "sauces" as these may be hiding sodium.
Here's my recipe for Dijon Salad Dressing made from healthy pantry staples:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp dried oregano
juice of half a small lemon (or 2 drops Lemon essential oil)
Add all ingredients in a mason jar or small bowl. Whisk or shake until ingredients are blended. Store any leftover in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature before using. This is delicious on a simple green salad with lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado.