A cup of soup is comforting, definitely, and it may actually help curb your appetite, too. You just have to make sure you fill your bowl with the right ingredients.
"My favorite standby is a quick soup," says Gratton. "I add some buckwheat noodles, a handful of loose pack frozen spinach, and some frozen shrimp to boiling low sodium chicken broth. When it's heated through and cooked, I add a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of ginger and white pepper."
Take heart, solo diners -- you may be sitting at the table by yourself, but you can still eat healthier than the people who are partnered up.
Eating for one is something that at least 73 percent of people living in single-person households do regularly, according to the Economic Research Service/United States Department of Agriculture's 2008 Eating and Health Module. And while there's nothing technically wrong with eating a meal by yourself, the unfortunate fact is that the meal is more likely to be an unhealthy one.
Why? No one's paying attention to what you're eating, for one thing. When we get home, we kick off our shoes, turn on the TV, and go into autopilot mode, says Luigi Gratton, MD, MPH, And when we're dining solo, it's easy for us to cook -- and eat -- more than we need. "People who live by themselves have some real challenges when it comes to cooking healthy meals," he says. "Most recipes are geared for four to six people, extra half heads of broccoli or lettuce that don't get used just go to waste and -- let's face it -- sometimes it just seems like too much trouble to cook for just yourself."
