Commercial canned soup is mostly salt and fat and pretty much nutrition-free. Some soups with the words "chunky," "hearty" or "healthy" in the name have less sodium and a few more over-cooked vegetables, but they are terribly expensive and not worth eating. The heartbreak of eating those canned abominations is that soup is so dead easy to make. Cut up three or four of your favorite vegetables (Don't like celery? Leave it out!) dump them in a pot with some canned broth and some meat scraps, set it on medium heat and then go take your pet cheetah for a half hour walk. You'll come home to something a hundred times better than what you could have gotten out of the most expensive can. Homemade soup keeps for a week in the fridge and is even better the second day.
2. Thou shall eat fruits and veggies.
This is everyone's least favorite, right up there with not coveting your neighbor's ox. The thing is, fruits and vegetables are the world's original fast food. Trying to stay away from potato chips before supper? Have an apple! It's fast, cheap and tasty. Not all apples were created equal. If you aren't familiar with all the different kinds go to the grocery store and buy one of every kind they carry. If you end up with one that's way too sour to eat, chop it up with a touch of sugar (or sucralose) and cinnamon and let it spend 3 minutes in the microwave. Eat it in front of someone so you can watch them drool.
3. Thou shalt limit fats
Sigh. Fats make things taste good. There's no getting around that. It really doesn't pay to be a low fat fanatic, though. You need some fat to process your fat soluble vitamins and to keep your skin from turning into philo dough. But, unfortunately, you don't need much fat to stay healthy. Try out those canned spray-on oils. They are useful for more than stick-free frying. The butter flavored version can be very tasty sprayed on hot vegetables. The olive oil version can be good sprayed on a salad, which you then sprinkle with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice. If you like your thousand island and don't want to give it up, have the dressing on the side. Then stick the fork tines in the dressing before you fork up a mouthful of salad. Try it, it works! You still have the taste of the dressing you love with less harm your body.
4. Thou shalt limit sugar
A commandment to eliminate sugar completely would have everyone living in hell. No need for that, but it's a good idea limit sugar. Refined sugar is simply empty calories. It's an urban legend that it causes diabetes, but it doesn't do your blood sugar any favors. A can of soda has the equivalent of a about half-cup of sugar. I wouldn't feed that stuff to a dog. Not even a stray dog that bit me. Artificial sweeteners may have their problems and you shouldn't have a steady diet of them, but considering how bad refined sugar is, they are, on the whole, better for you--in my opinion. Sucralose is only one molecule off from "real" sugar (it actually is "real" sugar, check out the "ose" ending) and it's the sweetener most likely to have the fewest side effects and none have been noted so far. Your body doesn't know what to do with it and just passes the stuff on through without absorbing it. Future research may find some harm in it, but right now it looks like the most benign and inert of all the sweeteners. A word of warning about "sugar-free" stuff. Lard is sugar-free--get the picture?
5. Thou shalt eat fiber
This commandment is probably one of the easiest to keep--certainly easier than not coveting your neighbor's sugar. A lot of really delicious things have good fiber such as a crunchy, crusty seven-grain bread, an apple, celery with a schmear of peanut butter, and even some of those high-fiber breakfast cereals are telling the truth when they say they taste good (some are lying through their teeth). Fiber is filling and hangs around in your stomach for a while so you don't get hungry again too soon. If you are dieting, this is a Very Good Thing.
6. Thou shalt eat breakfast
Ugh. A lot of people just aren't open for business first thing in the morning. That's understandable. However, your mom was right when she said it was the most important meal of the day. She was wrong that it had to be a sit down meal of eggs, ham, toast, grits, fruit salad and a quart of orange juice. A stick of string cheese and half a whole wheat bagel is fine. A glass of milk and a piece of toast is fine. Most breakfast cereals are not fine. For most of them eating the box they came in would be more nutritious. If you can't stand the thought of food first thing in the morning, hard boil a half dozen eggs and stick a couple in your pocket as you walk out the door in the morning. Eat them on morning break after you get to work. You can do the same with the bagel and string cheese.
