怎样选择营养均衡的食材

-Everyone knows the importance of healthy eating, yet many of us still buy unhealthy foods. So here to help us break out the shopping rut is Family Circle food director and registered dietitian, Regina Ragone. Thanks so much for joining us, Regina.

-Oh, thank you, thank you so much. And really you do have to take control of your shopping because if you don't have the food in the house, you're not going to be able to prepare healthy meals or snacks.

-It all starts there, doesn’t it? And so how important is it to have an idea of our menu before we head out to the supermarket?

-Well, you really need a menu, you know, this year I’ve been working with a family, we've been doing this healthy family initiative to get this family to eat right. I had to sit down with them and teach them how to make a menu for the week. That sounds like a lot of work, and it is a little bit of work upfront. But if you put down your meals, you’ll know what when you go shopping what to do. And what I tell people to start out was this thinking: what your plate should look like? And your plate actually should look like a quarter…

-Like this?

-Yeah. Which most of us grow up with a protein as a main part of the meal. But now we want to think of it as half of the plate should be salad and vegetables, a quarter is protein and a quarter is grain. So if you started out that way. So you make a menu starting from there. And we have a lot of actually great recipes and menus on familycircle.com to help your family so that you can choose from that.

-That's beautiful. So once you have your menu, do you need anything else to your shopping strategy?

-Well, you really need the first place you should focus on is the produce cell. Because that's where you want to have a lot of your fruits and vegetables and you know adults should have 2 to 3 servings of vegetables a day and 2 to 3 fruits. So you know, look in the produce cell, try different things and try different ways. I love to cut up bananas and freeze them. It’s like ice cream that way or grapes and that's a really great way to get kids to eat food.

-I was gonna say because obviously if you’re going in with these menus in mind, you are probably buying a lot more produce than you would normally. So you gotta get creative, some ways to get your kids actually eat it.

-I know, I know the moms that I have spoken to that are really successful with it, they just put it out like you put out the vegetables and the fruit, cut up and ranch dressing seems to like be the trick. You know, so that they can dip it in something, and they will eat it. If it’s there, if it's pretty, if it’s crunchy, they’ll eat it.

-Good point, just put it in front of them, and walk away, they are at the table, just put that down then see what happens, that's a very good point. Now we also need to rethink our protein, is that right? Because so many of us are accustomed like you said to think about a plate half full of big steak as…

-You know, definitely you want lean protein, and protein is important, so lean piece of chicken or ground beef that's you know 90% fat free. But also we're talking about more plant protein. We want people to have more protein that comes from the plant kingdom.

-And isn't this just for families that have teenagers that are going vegetarian, right?

-Right, right, it's actually great if your kids are going that, because it’s a great way to introduce some of the stuff. So for example, these vege burgers, they are kind of like hamburger, they taste really good like a burger. Honey is also a form of protein, beans, lentils. All these things work. And again you could also go to lean protein, but you know, this is what you’re talking about, I think a deck of cards is the size of protein you should be looking for.

-Because a lot of parents do a little confused when their kids want to switch over to it, even it’s just a phase or whether it becomes a whole lifestyle.

-Right. They worry about it, but it's totally healthy as long as they're eating the right protein.

-Absolutely.

-Peanut butter's good too.

-Now, what about whole grains? I mean so many of us are addicted to pasta, and we know how much kids love eating pasta, so it becomes an easy meal to whip up for them. Do you have any suggestions?

-And again the dietary guidelines are suggesting half of your carbohydrate should be coming from whole grain, there’re so much stuff out there now, and a lot of great quick cooking stuff. Like this is a wholly couscous, takes five minutes to cook.

-I love that. I love couscous.

-You mentioned the whole grain pasta, you know, so just switch out, starts switching out white rice for brown rice. And also whole grain bread, make sure whole grain is in the ingredient list.

-Does it take a little, a little while for your kids to readjust their taste buds when it comes to the whole grain or do they take to it right way?

-Sometime it does take a little while. That's why there's actually this white wheat out there so it looks white. So you can get their taste adjusted, yes yes. It's totally for feel.

-Ah, clever, clever. But it tastes like wheat, even though it looks like white. Love it.

-A little bit milder.

- That's a good way. You're tricking them into it, absolutely. I love all that. Now of course, dairy is very, very important.

-Yeah, diary is important. A lot of people have cut out dairy. And you really do need the calcium. But you know yogurt is a really great way to get in calcium.

-Why are people cutting out dairy? Is there any reason for it?

-You know there is a lot of people out there say it’s not good for you. But you really do need calcium. And a lot of people are maybe lactose intolerant and if that's the case, then look for lactate milk or something. I love lactate milk. It’s very rich and creamy, so I use it in my coffee. But yogurt is absolutely good. Even if people have lactose intolerance, they tend to tolerate this a little better. But it's also a really great creamy dessert. You could add frozen food to this. It’s high in protein. So don't forget the calcium.

-Delicious. I love it and the kids love it, even better, even better.

-Yeah they do, they do.

-Regina Ragone, thank you so much for all these great shopping tips. We are all ready to head to the supermarkets now. And don't forget you can follow us ABC News now on Facebook and Twitter just by searching “abcnews” now.