As a teen who likes to eat healthy food, I have a message from my nutri-pals: dark meat, celery, lentils, seaweed, hemp seeds and scallops. They’re saying, “Eat me! I’m healthy!”
You may have passed up the dark meat on the turkey last Thanksgiving, and see celery as being restricted to a veggie platter. You probably couldn’t recognize a lentil if it stared you in the face and think that seaweed is reserved for sushi. You also probably think that hemp seeds are illegal and scallops belong in pasta with alfredo sauce. Wrong! These forgotten foods have some huge health benefits.
Dark Meat: People usually pass up dark meat because it has more fat in it than white meat has. However, this extra fat is actually good for you. It makes you feel full and it keeps you feeling that way. So next Thanksgiving if you know that you really shouldn't eat that extra slice of apple pie, eat the dark meat instead of white. You’ll be too full to even think about pie.
Celery: Celery is usually forgotten unless you’re on a diet. This is because it has only ten calories [per what serving?], therefore the dieter can eat as much as they want without having to worry about adverse effects. This is all well and good, but celery can actually lower blood pressure as well. So all you high-blood-pressure-folks grab a stalk or two.
Lentils: First of all, you're not alone if don’t even know what a lentil is. (I didn’t.) Lentils are those little beige seeds found in garden vegetable soups. These little fellows are full of fiber—so you can pass up the Activia yogurt for a day or two—and they’re full of antioxidants to keep you healthy.
Seaweed: Of course you wouldn’t just grab it fresh out of the ocean, but try eating seaweed outside of a Japanese restaurant. Seaweed is full of calcium which promotes bone health, and it’s also full of potassium which prevents high blood pressure. Maybe you could try to eat sushi if it doesn’t make you queasy or find creative ways to work seaweed into your regular diet.
Hemp Seeds: Just because they come from the hemp plant does not mean that they are illegal. And no, you will not get high from eating them. These little seeds are a good source of protein, like eggs and meat. In addition to that they are full of omega-3 amino acids which prevent stroke and heart disease. You might not want to “just say no” to these.
Scallops: These sea creatures are a pretty common find here in New England, but New Englanders would be surprised to find that they aren’t so common everywhere else. But these little mollusks are 80 percent protein. I’m not suggesting grabbing a handful after a rigorous workout, that might me a little disgusting, but do eat them more often.
Only a third of the fat in a turkey drumstick is the saturated kind, according to the USDA food database. (The other two-thirds are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.)
Bottom line: Be adventurous. There’s lot’s of interesting foods that are really good for you.
