Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Healthy eating begins with learning how to “eat smart”—it’s not just what you eat, but how you eat. Additionally, learning the habits of healthy eating can boost your energy, sharpen your memory and stabilize your mood. You can expand your range of healthy food choices and learn how to plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, healthy diet.
If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.
Simplify. Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.
Make changes to your eating habits over time. Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.
Make to improve your diet matters. You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.
You should also try to maintain a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure—that is, don’t eat more food than your body can utilize. Just be sure to limit how frequently you eat such foods, and try to eat small portions of them.
The following basic guidelines are what you need to know to construct a healthy diet.
- Limit your intake of sugary foods, refined-grain products such as white bread, and salty snack foods. Sugar, our No.1 additive, is added to a vast array of foods. Many sugary foods are also high in fat, so they’re calorie-dense.
- Cut down on animal fat. Choose lean meats, skinless poultry, and nonfat or low-fat or nonfat dairy products.
- Eat more fish and nuts, which contain healthy unsaturated fats.
- Keep portions moderate, especially of high-calorie foods.
- Eat a variety of foods. Don’t try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods day in, day out.
- Try to get your vitamins and minerals from foods, because supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals