Latin American foods can be a healthful choice
Latin American foods are very diverse because they originate in many different countries — including Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Cuba — and many different cultures. While the cooking methods are not always the healthiest, the foods themselves often are. Take a look at the following food choices and try to pick the healthier alternatives.
In terms of calories, salsa is always the best choice — 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) have about 10 calories. Guacamole is great, with heart-healthy fat, but just 2 tablespoons have 40 calories. Sour cream is the worst of the three at 60 calories for two tablespoons.
One cup of white rice has about 170 calories, while Goya Yellow Rice Spanish Style Arroz Amarillo has 640 calories per cup. Yellow rice is typically made with the addition of oil and/or butter, some vegetables and annatto powder or saffron. The best choice would be brown rice, which has 220 calories per cup but is packed with 3.5 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein.
Black beans or pinto beans are a staple in many Latin American cultures, and when prepared in a healthy way (which they're typically not) they are very strong nutritionally. Beans, in general, are rich in protein, fiber, folate, manganese, magnesium, thiamin, phosphorus, iron and phytochemicals. The difference between black and pinto beans is minuscule: about 10 calories. One cup of boiled black beans is about 228 calories with 16 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber, while pinto beans have 236 calories, 14 grams of protein and 12 grams of dietary fiber. Additionally, a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition has reported that eating just a half-cup of pinto beans daily dropped total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol by more than 8 percent. Think about this: A half-cup of oatmeal eaten daily will reduce cholesterol 2 percent to 3 percent. Just make sure the beans are not prepared with lard (fat), as they often are in restaurants. Refried beans, at more than 240 to 280 calories per cup, are not a very good choice.
Dulce de leche is a dessert very similar to caramel that's prepared by heating sweetened condensed milk until it thickens to a kind of pudding texture. Just 1 tablespoon has 90 calories — wow! Flan is a custard dessert made with milk, cream, sugar, eggs and syrup that's basically the same as crème caramel, and it is also very high in calories — about 230 calories for half a cup. If you plan on eating just a tablespoon of the dulce de leche, obviously that's your better choice, but I would suggest cutting up a mango, which has only 107 calories per cup and is also packed with 3 grams of fiber, potassium and loads of other great nutrients.
