Hello, this is Monica Reinagle, and this week's episode of the Nutrition Diva

podcast is adapted from my new book, Nutrition Diva's Secrets for a Healthy Diet, What to

eat, What to Avoid, and what to stop worrying about.

It's available wherever you buy or download books. The quick and dirty tip is

that substituting turkey or chicken for beef or pork doesn't automatically make your meal healthier.

Last weekend, I was relaxing with a Sunday paper and I came across a story on how to take your favorite comfort foods and make them lighter.

For the article, a famous TV chef had adapted some recipes to make them healthier,

and her first recipe makeover was for sloppy Joes.

To lighten them up, she replaced ground beef with ground turkey.

That's it.

How does making sloppy Joes with ground turkey make them healthier.

Well, I guess that's what happens when you ask chefs for nutrition advice.

But I know tons of people who suffer from this same misconception.

They proudly tell me that they hardly ever eat red meat.

They substitute ground turkey or chicken and anything that calls for ground beef.

And they also eat turkey bacon, turkey sausage, turkey balona,

and turkey hot dogs instead of the regular kind.

Having told me all this, they lower their eyes modestly and wait for me to commend them for

their nutritional virtue.

Never mind all the sodium, nitrates, preservatives, and saturated fat in that turkey bacon.

Hey, at least it's not pork.

Well, you know what? That's just a bunch of turkey baloney.

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