Rutgers Cooperative Extension Provides Healthy Eating Tips at Community Health Fair

COURT HOUSE – Marilou Rochford, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County Family & Community Health Sciences (FCHS) Educator was a featured speaker at the annual Cape May County Healthcare Resource Day held April 23, 2016 at the Wildwoods Convention Center.  Rochford’s presentation centered on Eating Better on a Budget.  She provided ways to stretch your food dollar, demonstrated how healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive and shared tips to make healthy choices while staying on a budget.  She also showed how planning, shopping and cooking healthy can make a difference in your life.
Rochford said, “It is important to be as informed as possible when it comes to nutrition and your diet.”  She added, “The My Plate meal planning philosophy can be helpful.  Make half your plate fruits and vegetables, plus choose whole grains and proteins for each of the two remaining quadrants of  your plate.”
Other helpful tips included: Meal planning, which helps you to save time and money, helps you balance meals to help you and your family be healthier; tips for cooking, such as build the main part of your meal around rice, noodles, or other grains, add variety to family meals, try new ways to cook foods, do “batch cooking” and plan snacks.  Rochford also advises everyone to buy fresh produce when it’s in season, buy canned or frozen produce year round, look for veggies that have not been pre-sauced, and say “low sodium” or “no salt added”, look for fruits canned in 100% fruit juice or water, and finally stock up when there are sales. Additionally, attendees received tips for shopping:  Make a list of all the foods you need, look for specials in the newspaper and online ads for the stores where  you shop, look for coupons for foods you plan to buy, and never shop when hungry.
FCHS offers a variety of educational programs throughout the year that focus on living a healthy lifestyle.  For information about Rutgers Cooperative Extension Family and Community Health Sciences and upcoming programs, please call 465-5115, ext. 609.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County helps both youth and adults improve their knowledge and skills, enhance their quality of life, and resolve problems in areas of food, nutrition, health and wellness; food safety; agriculture; environmental and natural resource management; and youth development.  This is accomplished through the use of science-based knowledge and university research.  Rutgers Cooperative Extension is an education organization within the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. 
Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s education programs are offered to all without regard to race, religion, color, age, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or disability.