10 Most Common Foods In American Households | Nutrition & Dieting slideshows | Well Being center

Tomatoes For Salads And Snacks, Meals And Garnishes

Tomatoes are the most widely grown vegetable in the United States today - except that they can't be, because they're technically a fruit. Despite this identity crisis, tomatoes remain extremely popular, and are a great source of nutrients, particularly vitamins A and C. They're also rich in lycopene, a chemical that has been found to protect against certain cancers. Because the health-giving chemicals are often also dyes, the brightest and most colorful tomatoes are the best for you. It's a good idea to only eat the fruit: tomatoes are members of the Nightshade family and the leaves and stems contain poisonous chemicals.

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Oranges Are A Great Healthy Fruit- Americans Love Them!

Oranges are the ubiquitous American fruit, found in every American home and the most grown fruit in America today. The USA is the world's second largest producer of oranges. Only about 20% of the oranges grown are sold as fruit: the rest go for juices and preserves. They're also extremely good for you: you'd have to eat about 7 cups of cornflakes to get the same amount of fiber you get from eating one medium-sized orange. And here's a handy tip for when you're eating oranges: if you put them in a hot oven for a few minutes before you peel them, no white pith will adhere to the fruit!

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Honey - The Real Amber Nectar With Hidden Health Benefits

Honey is the food store bees lay down in their hives, made from the nectar the collect from flowers, fertilizing them in the process. Although it's basically sugar, honey is also filled with nutrients sugar doesn't have and is often delicately (and sometimes not so delicately: some orange honeys are pretty fierce!) flavored with the flowers it was made from. It's a key ingredient in sandwiches and goes great with oatmeal or even drizzled over bacon, and can be used in place of syrup as well as sugar. Some people say that honey helps reduce the symptoms of their allergies, while others point to its well-documented antiseptic properties, but it's also great to just eat it!

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Bacon - A Sizzling Treat For The Whole Family At Breakfast

Bacon is a key part of the American diet, the nation's traditional breakfast food, and although its high fat and sodium content saw it elbowed aside for grain-based foods during the 80s and 90s it remains a treat and is edging back in as its benefits are recognised by more and more people. Bacon is cured pork, though different countries prefer to use different cuts, with UK consumers preferring the shoulder and Canadians the back, while Americans prefer belly bacon. And bacon really refers to the curing method, rather than the source animal; some open-minded butchers will sell you elk bacon, venison bacon, boar bacon, even bear bacon!

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Strawberries And Blueberries - Great Summer Fruits

Strawberries and blueberries are perennial favorites in American homes. Blueberries have great antioxidant properties and have been referred to as a 'superfood' for some time. The bad news is they're often very high in pesticide residues, though the figures can be misleading. It's a good idea to wash blueberries before eating, or to buy them organic whenever you can. Strawberries are a favorite summer treat - and just eight or nine of them will provide 120% of the day's recommendation of vitamin C, while a cup of them has only 80 calories. The cream that goes with them, though, that's a different matter...

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Peanut Butter - America's Long-Time Favorite Spread

Peanut butter is a staple food in the South, where people used to make it themselves. Nowadays it's much more likely to come from the massive US peanut butter industry, which turns out enough peanut butter to keep up with Americans' $800 million yearly demand for it! In fact it's so popular that it's consumed in 90% of American households. Peanut butter is high in protein and fibre, making it a healthy food and by law every jar of peanut butter sold in the USA must be at least 90% peanuts.

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Olive Oil For Cooking, Salads, And Flavour

Olive oil has become more popular as Mediterranean cooking has been popularized throughout the West and in America. It's used in American households as a cooking oil, on salads and can also be used as a preservative. Since olive oil contains no cholesterol and a large percentage of monounsaturated fats, which clear the bloodstream of bad fats, it's regarded as being a very healthy food. Despite what you may have heard, though, it isn't necessary to store it in the refrigerator! Olive oil is available in various grades, and these can seem confusing at first. 'Virgin' means no chemicals have been used to extract the oil, while 'extra virgin' means the olives themselves were selected for quality before being mechanically pressed. 'Extra Virgin First Press' is the most expensive and sought-after type of oil.

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Carrots - An Old Favorite With Staying Power

Carrots are a staple vegetable, along with peas the traditional 'two vegetables' to go along with the meat of more old-fashioned fare. In recent years a trend in production of old-fashioned breeds of carrots that may be brightly colored in unusual shades, such as purple, has sprung up, in reaction to the increasingly bland and factory farmed mainstream carrots. However, carrots remain extremely nutritious, giving their name to a type of chemical called carotene that's converted to vitamin A when you eat it. As if carrots weren't giving you enough vitamin A already: one carrot contains more than 200% of the RDA of vitamin A!

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Apples are America's Favorite Orchard Fruit

Apples are a great food for keeping you healthy. They're high in antioxidants, especially vitamin C, and they're also rich in dietary fiber, meaning that they help keep you feeling full for longer. An apple of medium size is usually about 80 calories, so they're ideal for small snacks between meals, especially on the go. It's a good idea to buy them organic whenever you can, though, because they;re often heavily dusted with pesticides. And throwing away the peel won't help: two thirds of the antioxidants and a lot of the fibre are found in the peel of your apple!

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Milk And Eggs - In Every American Fridge

Milk and eggs are American favorites. Eggs form part of the country's traditional breakfast cuisine while milk is a day-long snack drink with great health benefits. Eggs are rich in protein and good fats, while carrying about 80 calories per egg. Meanwhile milk can be a great source of proteins, including casein and whey, and calcium as well as riboflavins, phosphorous and vitamins A, D and B12. Milk can be high in sugar and relatively high in fat and some people are unable to digest the main sugar in milk, lactose, while a small minority experience an allergic reaction to casein. For the rest of us, though, milk and eggs are great.