Healthy Food Choices: Sauces

It's important to limit your intake of cream based sauces. Learn to make some healthier decisions about sauces in this healthy shopping video.

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Limit intake of high fat cream based sauces
Salsa and tomatoes
Try and spices

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Alice Merritt is currently the Campus Dietitian at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She has a masters degree from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in public health with a concentration on nutrition. Alice has worked as a registered dietician for four years, and believes that helping people reach their nutritional goals will lead to a long and healthy life.

ALICE MERRITT: Now I'm going to talk to you about sauces. Sauces can be a great way to spice up dishes and it can be a healthy choice. Some of the sauces that you want to try limit are cream-based sauces. These are things like alfredo, your hollandaise sauces. These tend to be higher in calories and fat. Also, things that are ranch-based, mayonnaise-based, and cheese-based also tend to be higher in fat and you want to have them in moderation. Some healthy choices for sauces are things like salsa, tomato-based sauces. You also have olive-oil based sauces, such as pesto. You want to make sure that you have those in moderation because olive oil, while it's heart-healthy, tends to be a little bit higher in calories. It's also good to use light Italian dressing for sauces. Some important things to remember is you want to limit your intake of high fat creamy sauces. Anytime you can add a vegetable to your sauces, you're going to decrease the overall calorie content. It's also helpful if you can ask for sauces on the side in restaurants when appropriate. And it's good to experiment with a lot of different herbs and spices to flavor up your foods rather than feel like you need to cover them in sauces. These are some healthy things to remember when looking at sauces.

Healthy Food Choices: Sauces Video

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