During the winter months, it’s important to remember to take care of your body. That starts with making sure you are putting healthy food on your table. Eating a healthy and balanced diet instead of one high in heavily processed food is vital to keeping yourself happy and healthy all year long. We asked a few Council staff members who are blind or low vision about how they ensure they’re fueling their body with healthy food.
One key to eating healthy is to cook most of your meals yourself. Executive Director Denise Jess has been cooking for her entire life. Using knives to chop vegetables can be a little intimidating, but you can do it safely with a few tips. Keeping your knives sharp is the first step toward safe chopping. A sharp knife will go through the food you’re trying to slice instead of slipping off and potentially cutting you. Knives should be kept in a knife block if possible, rather than in a drawer.
Use a claw grip to hold your food in place. When cutting something slippery, like a piece of fruit, a cut glove can help protect your hand in case your knife slips. “I use kitchen shears for cutting up herbs, as these are difficult to manage with a knife,” Denise says. “I use a mandoline with a shoot for thin slicing, so my hand is never near the blade. A food processor works amazingly for slicing or chopping large quantities of things.”
Administrative Assistant Heather Buggs uses meal delivery services like Hello Fresh to get healthy meals delivered to her door ready to be cooked. For Heather, the oven is the safest and healthiest way to prepare her food. Using a stovetop to fry food can cause burns and can result in a lot of oil getting into your food. Before turning the oven on, check the location of the racks and adjust them if necessary. After letting the oven heat up, stand directly in front of the oven with your arms lined up with the racks. Using a large oven mitt that covers most of your arm or an oven glove with fingers will protect you from burns much better than pot holders or towels. When your food is done, open the oven door and stand back in case any steam has built up inside the oven. When it’s time to take something out of the oven, keep your stovetop clear so you can lift your pan right out of the oven and onto the stovetop.
An important part of eating healthily is knowing what’s in your food. Access Technology Specialist Jim Denham used to eat instant oatmeal for breakfast every day, thinking it was a heart healthy meal. But when he read the nutritional label, he found that his supposedly “healthy” breakfast was actually loaded with sodium. Jim either has someone with vision read him the label or uses the Be My Eyes app on his phone to read the labels. Instead of instant oatmeal, Jim now makes his own using oats and maple syrup. “I never used to pay attention to nutritional labels because I couldn’t read them,” Jim says. “I’m now much more aware of exactly what I’m eating and can make more informed decisions about my food.”
If you don’t cook your meals yourself, you can still take steps to put healthy food on your table. Administrative Assistant Susan Bosque has never considered herself a cook. In addition to fresh fruits, which require little to no preparation, Susan regularly gets prepackaged bags of salad from the grocery store to make sure she’s getting her vegetables. “Those salads come in a wide variety of styles and are generally very filling,” Susan says. “I really appreciate knowing I eat as fresh as I can.” On the occasions she does cook herself, Susan often uses a slow cooker to make a healthy, homecooked meals. “I just memorized the order of the settings and turn the knob to where I want it,” Susan says. “Then I toss in veggies and maybe some meat, and viola.”
The Sharper Vision Store carries a wide variety of adaptive cooking tools to help you in the kitchen. You can find them online at Store.WCBlind.org/store/kitchen. If you need help learning or relearning kitchen skills after losing your vision, the Council may be able to help. You can reach our Vision Services team at [email protected] or by filling out the vision services request form on our website.