Annika Gandhi is a junior at Clements High School in Sugar Land. She is a district officer of a business organization called DECA, and also participates in the school's choir program. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the Science National Honor Society. In her free time, she enjoys cooking healthy recipes, working out, and, more than anything, traveling. 

March is National Nutritional Month!

National Nutritional Month focuses on promoting the importance of making smart and informed eating habits and food choices. The theme for this year is "Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle". Healthier eating habits include eating throughout the day, swapping junk food favorites for more nutritional options, and also cutting down on unnecessary calories, fats, and carbohydrates. 

Annika's Tips for a More Nutritional Diet:

Although fast food and restaurants may be more convenient, there are innumerable benefits to cooking at home. By cooking your food yourself, you can be more aware of what is actually going into your body. Cooking at home usually results in a much lower sodium and fat intake. Additionally, cooking at home allows you to make nutritional substitutions. These include swapping mashed avocado for mayonnaise, using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and whole grain foods instead of regularly processed ones.  Also, making your food at home will help you cut down on portion size. One definite way to cut down on portion size would be to use smaller plates. It's amazing how much more satisfied we feel when consuming an entire small plate of food rather than half of a large plate of food.  Another thing to make sure you do is to pre-portion your snacks. Rather than taking the whole bag of chips to the couch, just put a few in a bowl to enjoy.