March is National Nutrition Month

Since nutrition is the main reason for eating healthy you need to consider focusing on vegetables, fruits, whole grains and lean meats. Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients and are low in calories. Your meals should include a variety of foods from all food groups.

Add protein by choosing more fish and poultry to lower the fats in your diet and to control cholesterol. At least three servings of whole grain cereal, bread, rice or pasta should be consumed each day.

Saint Patrick's day, in the mid-west, is usually the date most gardeners begin planting potatoes. By planting early you will have little "new" potatoes to cook with fresh peas or green beans. Potatoes, peas, onions and other root-crops can be planted beginning in the month of March in most parts of the United States.

Planting a vegetable garden is a good way to have fresh foods for your family. Summer offers a great opportunity to introduce your family to a variety of 'new' fruits and vegetables. If you do not have the time or skill for gardening you can find fresh fruits and vegetables in season at local farmers-markets.

Allow your kids to help with the gardening, most kids love to walk down the rows and drop the potatoes, and seeds in the ground. They can set onions, and place radish and carrot seeds as well as beans and peas in the rows and help cover them with soil. Most kids love to watch the seeds sprout and begin to grow, and many can be persuaded to at least taste the vegetables they have nurtured to maturity.

If you do not have adequate garden space consider using your flower-beds or pots for growing vegetables. Tomatoes grow very well in large pots. One or two tomato plants will produce enough fruit to give you fresh tomatoes for your table almost everyday throughout the summer and up to the first killing frost in most areas.

Strawberries can be planted in your flower-beds or along the edge of the sidewalk and herbs of almost every variety will grow nicely in pots on the deck or patio. Blueberry bushes make a nice addition along the side of the house or edge of the yard with your other bushes and shrubs.

Source: Personal experience, www.eatright.org/public