05/01/2023
2023 Health Tips To Eating Healthy
It's been proven that eating healthy can help you live longer and reduce your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity. It can also help manage existing diabetes and prevent complications from other chronic conditions, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. In some cases, eating a healthy diet can even eliminate the need for medications that help control these issues.
The following 7 simple tips will help you eat healthy:
1. Know what a healthy diet looks like
Your healthy diet is an eating pattern that consistently provides nourishment, balance, and satisfaction. Your eating pattern encourages you to nourishing your body throughout the day by not skipping meals and does not eliminate food groups.
Healthy eating emphasizes:
• Nonstarchy vegetables, such as dark leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, onions, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, fresh herbs, carrots
• Whole fruit, fresh or frozen, as well as canned fruit packed in water or its own juice
• Whole grains, such as whole wheat bread and pasta, whole oats, brown rice and quinoa
• Lean proteins, including poultry, seafood and lean cuts of meat (tenderloin, round, chuck and sirloin)
• Calcium-rich foods, such as low-fat milk products
• Protective, unsaturated fats, like avocados, nuts, seeds, oily fish, and olive or canola oil
Eating healthy also means choosing these whole foods over processed, packaged ones more often than not.
Note that saturated fat, added sugar and salt found in processed foods add flavor to your plate and can help food last longer, but they don't offer any additional vitamins or minerals beneficial to your health. Essentially, they add calories without any extra benefit. The high intake of salt, added sugar and saturated fat can greatly increase your risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
2. Remove blockers to healthy eating
The most difficult thing about eating healthy is being consistent with our food. We know that life happens and barriers arise that challenge consistency, making it a lot easier to revert to old habits instead of figuring out how to adapt.
One of the biggest challenges to achieving this consistency is that many people view a "healthy" or "nutritious" eating plan as one that's very restrictive. "No foods are off limits. All foods fit, there are just some foods we want to choose more often and other foods we want to consume in moderation.
3. Set realistic goals if you're trying to lose weight
People often start thinking about eating healthy when they want to lose weight. This is great, since a healthy weight can be a fantastic indicator of overall health. But it's not just about losing fat. For weight loss to be accomplished in the healthiest way, it's best to maintain your muscle mass while losing weight, even though this results in slower weight loss.
4. Get help in creating a healthy eating plan that's right for you
When it comes to an eating plan, there are plenty of trendy diets out there: Keto, Whole30, intermittent fasting and the list goes on.
But are these diet programs the right way to approach healthy eating?
"Restrictive diets may help you achieve short-term weight loss, but they're usually not helpful in creating long-term lifestyle behaviors that improve your overall health." "They often eliminate entire food groups, which can damage your relationship with food and create unnecessary food fear."
Skip the popular diets and start simple by emphasizing the healthy foods above and reducing the not-so-healthy alternatives you might be used to choosing.
And if you're struggling to adopt a healthy eating pattern, get help from a dietitian. He or she can help offer the tailored guidance, tips and tricks needed to help you form lasting habits.
A dietitian can also advise you on how many calories you should be eating per day to meet your weight loss or weight maintenance goals. Calorie intake is determined based on height, weight, s*x, age and activity level — making it complicated to determine on your own at home.
5. Know how to eat healthy when dining out or ordering in
There's eating healthy at home, and then there's eating healthy when you're not at home — which becomes considerably more difficult.
"It's always helpful to skim the menu before going to a restaurant. We are more likely to order impulsively and not be as mindful or strategic with our choices when ordering in the moment." "Look and plan ahead." Make healthy adjustments to that less-than-healthy dish you want.
"You can always alter a menu item, such as asking for a different protein, dressing on the side or swapping a starchy side for a vegetable." "Try to always include some type of colorful veggie on your plate."
And one last tip, eat your veggies before the rest of your entrée — this can help from both an appetite and digestive perspectives.
6. Snack smart to stay full between meals
Another time when it's easy to make not-so-healthy food choices is between meals.
"If we're not prepared, it becomes harder to select the better options, especially when we're in a hurry." When choosing snacks, try to select a snack that contains a variety of food groups — which will be more filling and satisfying.
Some healthy snack recommendations:
• Low-fat Greek yogurt with fruit
• Low-sugar, ready-to-drink protein shake with a handful of nuts
• Low-fat string cheese with a cup of grapes
• Raw vegetables with hummus
• Hard-boiled egg with avocado
7. Be patient with yourself
Whether you hit a roadblock as you're just getting started or when the holidays come around, know that adopting a healthy eating pattern takes patience, compromise and balance
Approach healthy eating like you would a traffic light:
• Green light = whole, healthful foods you choose most often
• Yellow light = less healthy foods you choose less often
Red light = not-so-healthy foods you choose least
