Nutrition Sense in a Sandwich

Enlarge Image Image Gallery This simple packed lunch goes a long way toward satisfying your daily nutritional recommendations. PHOTO: AL CLAYTON

Eating out-of-doors doesn't have to mean getting out of shape. This summer, pack your picnic basket healthfully. The lunch pictured here is a pretty simple affair, but it's more nutritious than you might imagine. It goes a long way toward satisfying some of the daily requirements set forth in the U.S. government's latest word on nutrition—the National Academy of Science's National Research Council (NRC) report, Diet and Health.

Last year, the surgeon general echoed a broad scientific consensus: A good diet may help prevent or delay a host of diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and obesity. Now the NRC report gives us some user-friendly numbers to help us choose our food.

Every day, we should:

•  eat six or more servings of starches and other complex carbohydrates (breads, cereals, grains and legumes);

•  eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables;

•  limit meat consumption to six ounces;

•  limit total salt intake to six grams or less;

•  reduce total fat intake to 30% or less of calories, and total cholesterol to less than 300 mg.

It's easier than it sounds to fit those foods into our daily fare. The simple box lunch described in this article provides 50% of the complex carbohydrates for the day, 60% of fruits/vegetables and 50% of the meat servings. Here's how:

Complex Carbs: Sandwich Starters

Eat six or more servings of complex carbohydrates a day.  

This meal provides three. Each slice of whole-grain bread is a serving, and a half cup of pasta salad (with a tablespoon of low-cal dressing) is the third.

Each of the following is one serving: a slice of bread, a roll or muffin, five crackers, a half cup of dry or cooked cereal, a half cup of legumes and a half cup of pasta.

The list is short but spacious, with room for abundant variety. Some whole-grain sandwich starters are 100% whole-wheat, raisin, rye or pumpernickel bread; whole-corn or whole-wheat tortillas; whole-wheat bagels, pitas or English muffins; rice cakes; corn bread; matzos; or crispbread.

Round out your daily allotment with a half cup of these other starchy choices: pasta, brown rice, black beans, black-eyed peas, broad beans, chickpeas (garbanzos), kidney beans, lentils, limas, pintos, soybeans or white beans. (Since legumes are also rich in protein, they can replace meat in meals, as well.)

Protein: Sandwich Fillers