The Home Page Network

On this edition of Movin’ Together our guest in the studio is Laurel Health’s Registered Dietitian Jessica Monger discussing the benefits of salads.

But first, Sara Vogt, Jessica Monger, Lauren Gooch, and Julianna Vogt began their time together outside of the studio enjoying salads at the Red Skillet in Wellsboro. (See video)

The four salads that they enjoyed at the Red Skillet were the Southwest Salad with Chicken, Garden Salad, Grilled Chicken Salad, and the Salmon Salad. These salads were delightfully refreshing with wonderful ingredients such as pine nuts, dried apricot, dried cranberries, carrots, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes to name just a few! The greens for the salads were either locally grown mixed greens or hydroponic lettuce from Northern Tier greens.

Back in the studio, Jessica described numerous benefits of eating salads such as the fiber they contain. Dietary fiber helps us to feel full and takes longer to consume which slows down our pace of eating! When you eat slowly, you digest better. Fiber can also create a gelatin-like substance which carries some of the cholesterol out of our blood, lowering our risk for heart disease.

Other nutrients found in fruits and vegetables are potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and folic acid. These nutrients give us a healthy advantage by reducing our risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

Jessica explained eating healthy unsaturated fats, like those found in salmon, avocado, olive oil, and canola oil can improve our heart health which the American Heart Association recommends. The American Cancer Society also recommends limiting red meat and processed meat and suggests eating lean meats like fish and chicken.

Other sources of protein for our summer salads are nuts, peas, beans, and legumes.

For more information about the Red Skillet or to view their menus, you can visit their website or their Facebook page.

On a personal note: Many years ago I experienced a personal health crisis and that is when I began researching how food could play a role in healing. I was a food junkie, so changing up what I knew would be a healthy choice seemed too daunting for me – actually impossible. I remember eating a whole bag of cookies as I was pondering my dilemma, (does that sound familiar)? Knowing that this was serious and needed to be addressed, I called out to God for help. Like any bad health behavior, it took time for me to adjust to new healthy changes. Thankfully – THE HEALTH BENEFITS have outweighed my desire for junk food.

At 68 years young I have the energy to bike and swim with my ten-year-old, run after my two grandsons and walk with family and friends.

Many health professionals have assisted me along this journey and I am very grateful for all of them and some have been a part of Movin’ Together.

My desire for doing Movin’ Together is to encourage all of us to enjoy our families and friends and feel well while doing it!

You, too, can change those bad health behaviors to good ones. You may need to cry out to God for help too, He’s listening.