American Heart Association's National Eating Healthy Day Offers Tips For Nutritious Meals
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The lunchtime crowd at the Shops at Comcast Center in Center City were treated to a healthy cooking demonstration and free samples, as part of National Eating Healthy Day, sponsored by the American Heart Association.
Chef Budd Cohen, of the Culinart Group, spooned out tastes of Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple and Speltberry soup, and talked to diners about ways to eat and cook healthier.
His simplest tip? Cook from scratch.
"...because processed food is filled with fat, sugar and salt, and if you cook from scratch, you can monitor how much of these items go into your food."
One diner tried three of the chef's soup samples.
"It's, again, it's got a good salt and pepper taste, it just is very tasty, I loved it, yeah."
American Heart Association Community Health Director Jennifer Litchman is hoping the demonstration will help people extend good food choices beyond this one day.
"So we can really make an impact on the meal choices that Americans are making, because obesity is such a huge risk factor for heart disease."
The Heart Association offers food and beverage tool kits for companies, churches and schools, with tips on how to move toward healtheir food choices.