I am often asked the simple question “what exactly should I eat if I want to eat healthy”? This seems like a very straightforward question and one that may be easy enough to answer but with the many different “diets” out there and the many differences in “expert opinions”, this question may be one of the most difficult questions to answer. The truth is that we are still very much in the learning stage when it comes to understanding how our diet affects our health. “Expert advise” seems to change every year or two so something that is claimed to be certainly bad or good for your diet may be disproven next year. Take for example eggs. For years it was widely believed that one should avoid eating eggs, especially egg yolks. Since eggs contain a lot of cholesterol and the majority of this cholesterol is found in the yolk and cholesterol is bad, I can see where this makes sense. However, they have discovered that eating cholesterol does not increase the cholesterol in your body and that eggs are a very good source of protein and many other necessary nutrients in an item that is under 100 calories and very cheep to buy. Also most of these nutrients are in the yolk so “egg white omelets” are no longer the current diet trend. If the “experts” are going to keep changing their opinions you may be asking “then what exactly should I eat”?
I can not and will not prescribe an eating plan for anyone. Everyone’s diet will be a little different based on many different factors such as what nutrients your body needs. Things like age, gender, health concerns, activity levels, etc. all determine what nutrients your body needs and how much of these nutrients you need to consume.
Other important considerations to determining one’s diet are; preferences and beliefs. If you do not like eating something it really does not matter how healthy it is, you most likely will not consume it for very long before you just give up and eat what you like.
However, even though I will not tell you what to eat I can suggest some simple strategies to help you eat better.
- First, DON’T attempt to completely change your diet in a day. Small steps of improvement will work best at helping you be successful and help create that long term change in eating habits that you are looking for.
- Think variety. To be most successful at getting all of the nutrients your body needs you need to eat a variety of foods. You should be trying to eat as many “colors” of foods that you can. Many food of different colors have different nutrients in them. Your body needs all of these nutrients so eating the same old green salad every day may be depriving your body of other nutrients that your body needs
- Try and eat whole foods. That is foods in their natural state. Try and stay away from processed foods whenever you can. Fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, whole unprocessed/unbleached grains, raw nuts/seeds, lean meats and low fat dairy are all great choices. This is where you will want to check the ingredient list if the food has one. There should be a very limited number of ingredients and you should try and stay away from words such as; processed, bleached, enriched, etc.
- Try and make at least half of your plate fruits and vegetables. This will not only supply you with many great nutrients but will also greatly reduce your calorie intake. Sneak these foods into your diet however you can. One suggestion I have is to eat a piece of fruit an hour before your meal. This will help you get the necessary nutrients in and may help you eat less when you sit down for your meal. Another great idea is to try and snack on fruits and vegetables only. Just be careful of the amount of calories the fruit or vegetable you are eating has. Not all fruits and vegetables are equal. Some fruits and vegetables have a much greater amount of calories than others so I suggest you look up the amount of calories in the food you are eating before you start eating it in large amounts.
- Pay attention to what you are eating and how your body feels. Eat slowly and try and limit distractions. We often eat much more when we are distracted by the television or great conversation and end up overeating. Really learn to listen to your body and eat when you are truly hungry and not just board or stressed.
This list is just a few simple strategies to help you get on the path of healthy eating. Remember your current eating habits have been established for a long time so don’t try and change everything overnight.
