Summer is the perfect season for healthy eating

By Alan Suderman
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

If spending the summer months in the kitchen slaving over a stove doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, then don’t.

Summer is a perfect time to turn off the stove and eat fresh, says Barbara Kamp, a nutritionist and dietitian who works as the project coordinator at the National Resource Center on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Aging at the Florida International University in Miami.

Turn off the oven
“Since it’s summer, I would definitely suggest going fresh,” she says. “Focus on the things that are in season, like plums, peaches, nectarines.”

Both fruits and vegetables are generally less expensive and more plentiful during the summer months. Visiting a local farmers market is a great way to get the freshest produce for summer meals.

Kamp also suggests keeping no-cook snacks like yogurt and hard-boiled eggs on hand to make sure you’re getting enough calcium and protein—especially for women.

Leave the cooking to someone else
At Eagle’s Trace in Houston, eating healthy is easy. Although all apartment homes come with a full kitchen, many residents prefer to eat with friends at one of the on-site restaurants (one meal a day is included in the community’s monthly service package).

And Chef de Cuisine Wayne Webb goes to great lengths to make sure community members have both healthy and appealing options.

For the summer months, Webb has an easy and fresh recipe that won’t take long to make and which uses the season’s fresh vegetables.

The easy-to-make Asian Cold Cucumber Salad can be served as a “palate cleanser between courses or as an appetizer,” Webb says.

‘Keep your color’
“Keep your color in your vegetables,” he warns. “If you’ve cooked them until they’ve lost their color, you’ve lost their vitamins and nutrients.”