While creating a healthy diet plan knowing healthy food is essential to get various health benefits. You should be aware of the quality and quantity of the food intake. A healthy eating plan helps to prevent several diseases and keep yourself healthy.
Sometimes your body gets overwhelmed by the major changes in your diet. Try making small changes to your diet so that your body can accept the changes gradually.
Here are the healthy eating tips.
Know your foods
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Gathering some basic information about your foods can help your healthy eating plan.
We all are so busy in our day to day lives that we never learn about foods which cause us weight gain and the complications related to unnecessary weight.
Knowing food is important to add healthy food choices to your healthy eating plan. Before adding food to your diet try to know what best work for your diet plans such as weight loss, bodybuilding, particular diseases prevention diet, healthy skin diet, hair diet and many more.
Generally, you will need plenty of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fiber and healthy fats for good body functions. Every part of the human body can get different benefits from different foods.
Whether your purpose is to promote your health or weight loss, you should know about food options by reading about food nutrition labels and its content. With the help of nutrition labels, you will know about the good quality and poor quality of foods.
There are a few foods which provide good benefits and some food doesn’t. In these situations, change your meal and diet plan to get the essential and specific nutrition for your health goal.
Be organized
Keeping everything organized is important for a healthy eating diet. If you have not preplanned about your healthy snack and meal, then you may find difficult to decide what to eat during hunger time.
Expert dietitian suggests that planning ahead a week about meal can be the best practice.
If you stay organized about your food intake, then you can have more healthy eating choices. You can bring some veggies and fruits which are low in calories and store it in your fridge. It will help to plan what day which veggies or fruit you need to eat. In this way, you will stay in order to eat healthily.
If you find weekly meal preparation is difficult, then you can buy snacks and meal from supermarket accordingly.
Example: Australian dietary guidelines suggest to eat two fruits every day, so plan to buy 14 serves of fruits for every person each week.
Likewise, you need to try half of your food intake vegetables for which make sure you have enough stock of veggies from the supermarket till your next shopping. This method helps you to adopt healthy eating foods on another season also. It also saves your money and time for good health.
Eat Slow
Eating slow can provide health benefits for maintaining good body weight. According to studies comparison eating speeds shows the people who eat more faster develops 115% more chances to become obese than the people who eat slow.
Your appetite depends on how you eat and how you feel full is all regulated by your hormones such as leptin and ghrelin. These are hunger hormones which signal your brain about your stomach is full or hungry. It takes 20 minutes of time to reach the signal to your brain that you are eating. Therefore, eating slowly can give your brain enough time to receive a signal that you are full.
The research found that slow eating helps to reduce the calories consumed and promote weight loss. More chewing while eating also helps to manage better weight.
Apart from making you feel, full slow eating helps in better digestion. It’s like a chain of reaction such as we see, smell and start salivating. The saliva is an important enzyme which helps to break down the food and helps to soften food by chewing to digest easily.
If we eat fast, then digestion process will force the Gl tract to manage food before it gets prepared.
Increase your protein intake
Protein is an essential component of the human body’s tissues. It plays an important role in maintaining immunity, metabolism, energy and fluid balance. Proteins build blocks which describe as amino acids.
The protein amino acids divided into two groups such as essential and non-essential.
The essential amino acids the one which human body cannot produce. Therefore, you require to consume essential amino acids from foods.
Regarding non-essential amino acids, the human body can produce it which you don’t need from foods.
The number of amino acids blocks formation determines the high quality or low-quality protein. You can get full protein from animal products such as meat, eggs, fish, poultry, and dairy.
Another good source of protein is soybeans which are plant-based protein. Other plant-based proteins are incomplete such as whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts.
The amount of protein you need
According to Recommended-Dietary-Allowance-(RDA) 0.8g protein required for per kilogram body weight on daily basis. Every gram of protein contains four calories. So, if an individual eats 2,000 calories every day, the protein intake is 50 to 175g.
It is necessary to have a well-adjusted diet for a best healthy diet plan.
Choose Whole-Grain
To make your diet healthier try choosing whole grain bread instead of refined bread. Refined grains cause health problems whereas whole grains help to reduce type 2 diabetes, cancer risk, and heart disease.
Whole grain contains enough fiber, minerals, iron, manganese, zinc, and vitamin B. You can buy many varieties of whole grain products including bread which can taste better than refined products.
One thing you need to remember is to read the nutrition label to make sure it is whole grain. Similarly, avoid mixture products of refined grains.
All kinds of whole grains contain complex carbohydrates. There is different whole grain found such as rice, cereal, flour, bread and pasta which includes:
- Barley
- Buckwheat
- Millet
- Popcorn
- Brown rice
- Oatmeal
- Bulgur (cracked wheat)
- Whole-wheat bread, pasta or crackers
You can enjoy the whole grain in the following ways.
- Eat whole grains in breakfast as bran flakes of whole wheat
- oatmeal or Shredded Wheat
- Replace whole wheat toast or bagels with plain bagels.
- Replace low-fat muffins with whole grain oatmeal or pastries.
- Use whole grain bread or rolls for a sandwich and avoid white flour.
- Change white rice with brown rice, quinoa, wild rice, bulgur, and barley.
- Add white rice or barley in casseroles, soups, stews, and salads.
- Add poultry or ground meat with a whole grain such as bread crumbs or brown rice.
- Replace dry breadcrumbs with whole wheat cereal bran.
Add more fruits
Fruits are the essential source of nutrients to add in the healthy eating plan.
Often many of us think only patients should eat fruits or only rich people have the option to add fruits in their daily intakes. But the truth is that everyone should eat a variety of fruits to get their different benefits.
Fruits can be an amazing handy snack which you can keep a bowl on the table, refrigerator, and counter.
You can purchase the seasonal fruits which found easily and less expensive. Instead of adding sugar to your dishes, add any fruits which provide natural sweet taste.
Check for a variety of fruits such as fresh, frozen, canned and dried so that you can enjoy it.
Instead of juices try eating the whole of cuts of fruits to get the full benefit of dietary fiber.
Add fruits in your breakfast as cereal toppings such as peaches, banana and strawberries, and blueberries. Still, you can enjoy the orange and grapefruit juice. You can also mix fruits in fat-free yogurt.
Try eating fruits in your lunchtime. You can have fruits such as grapes, banana, and tangerine as a salad. You can also carry fruits single container to your lunch such as applesauce or peaches.
Add fruits to your dinnertime also such as orange sections, crushed pineapple, grapes. Make fruit salad or salsa by topping on fish.
Make fruits snacks by mixing with nuts which are easy to store and carry anywhere.
Always wash fruits before eating or giving it to children. Clean with running water and rub fruits briskly to remove the surface micro-organism and dirt. After washing, pat dries the fruits with a clean towel.
Regular consumptions of fruits benefit the human body in the following ways.
- Boost energy
- Promote heart health
- Regulate blood sugar
- Prevent Liver and breast cancer
- Control blood pressure
- Prevent kidney stones
- Improve bone health
- Prevent disease
- Support weight loss
- Helps hair growth and skin glow
Eat eggs in breakfast
Eating eggs in the morning breakfast provide best benefits in the healthy eating diet plan. It contains rich protein and essential nutrients which proven to be healthy if eaten in the breakfast.
During the diet studies of calories comparison, eggs have shown top results for breakfast time.
Eggs breakfast make you feel fuller for a long time which makes you consume fewer calories in the next 36 hours which aid many weight loss diets.
You can eat a variety of egg recipes in breakfast such as eggs benedict, omelets and scrambled eggs.
Eat Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is a creamier and thicker yogurt than normal. It is a pure cream after removing excess whey from milk. This yogurt contains rich protein and healthy fats than normal yogurt.
Greek yogurt contains three times more amount of protein than the normal yogurt or 9 grams per 100 grams.
You must add good protein in your healthy eating diet which makes your stomach feel fuller for a longer time to aid your appetite and consume fewer calories.
Moreover, Greek yogurt is strained, so it has fewer lactose and carbs than normal yogurt. It is best suitable for a low-carb diet.
You can replace unhealthy snacks with greek yogurt best dose of nutrients and protein.
One thing you need to remember is to choose non-flavored greek yogurts because flavored yogurt contains added sugar which can be unhealthy food.
Drink Enough Water
Water is the principal component of a healthy eating diet plan. Drinking enough water is necessary for maintaining body functions and staying hydrated.
According to many studies, drinking enough water helps to benefits weight loss and maintain weight by boosting the number of calories burning every day.
Even drinking water before meals helps to decrease the calorie intake and appetite, especially in middle-aged and older people.
Whenever you feel thirsty, or you work outdoor, then consider drinking water instead of other beverages. Replacing sugary and carbonated drinks with water helps to decrease calorie and sugar intake.
Individuals who drink enough water consume fewer than 200 calories every day than the people who consume other beverages.
Bake | Roast | Grilling | Frying
Cooking food in different ways have a drastic change in your health. There are different ways to cook fish or meat such as broiling, grilling, frying, and deep frying.
However, these types of cooking form various toxic compounds such as advanced glycation, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heterocyclic amines.
You need to apt for healthy cooking for healthy eating such as broiling, baking, slow cooking, pressure cooking, poaching and stewing. These methods don’t encourage harmful compounds, and the food remains healthier.
However, for a change, you can still enjoy these types of cooking sometimes.
Limit your portions
While making a healthy eating plan, you may wonder what size of the portion can be enough for you. Too much eating can contribute to obesity, and limited eating might provide fewer nutrients. You need to read the guidelines for understanding proper food portion size.
For best practice, you have half plate veggies and quarter lean protein and whole grain during lunch and dinner.
Cut back your protein intake with extra veggies which can surprise you to maintain your plan.
While buying food pay attention to the containing serving number and note down calories and fats per serving.
For example: If a large muffin contains 10 grams fat and 250 calories in a serving, then it contains two servings which mean you are eating 500 calories and 20 g fat from the muffin.
You can check the portion size with your own hands which include the following.
vegetables (non-starchy)
- Use both hands as cupped together to measure the non-starchy vegetable such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrot
- Tip – Try choosing rainbow color vegetables (per vegetable with a different color) which can provide different nutrients.
Legume, starchy vegetables, and grain foods
- Get this food equal to your closed fist size. This food combination includes taro, potato, corn, green banana, bread roll, and rice.
- Take a fist size legume such as lentils, chickpeas, and beans.
- Tip: If you wish to add extra grain or starchy veggies than lower the equal size and make the whole portion similar to fist size.
Poultry or meat
- Measure the chicken, pork or red meat which should be equal to your palm size.
- Tip: Make sure meat thickness is as same as your palm size.
Fruits, nuts or vegetables
- You can eat nuts, fruits or veggies as a snack which should be equal to your palm.
Fish
- You can eat a handful of fish pieces which good enough for your meal.
Vitamin D Supplements
Many people lack vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat dissolvable vitamin which is important for bone health and proper immune functions. In fact, every cell responds to vitamin D.
Add vitamin D in your healthy eating plan to get it’s enough benefits. You can get vitamin D from direct morning sunlight or some veggies, egg. Vitamin D helps to regenerate skin cells and hair follicles too.
Omega- 3
It is a necessary fatty acid which the body needs to diminish inflammation. Omega 3 benefit brain functions and heart health.
You can combine the following fish, nuts, and seeds to your healthy eating plan.
- Mackerel
- Salmon
- Herring
- Oysters
- Sardines
- Anchovies
- Others: walnut, Flaxseeds, chia seeds and Soybeans
Replace Fast Food
To maintain your healthy eating diet, eat your favorite fast food occasionally. If your daily life involves eating restaurant fast food, then replace it with healthy snack options.
Fast foods like pizza and burger contain simple carbs which are highly glycemic. This simple carb breakdown quickly into the sugar and make your stomach feel unsatisfied.
Eat Greens veggies first
Add leafy green veggies as a starter in your healthy eating diet plan. Like that you will enjoy the green while you are the hungriest. Eating green at the starting of your meal makes you eat healthier and fewer calories which support good weight loss.
However, consuming vegetables before rich carb meal benefits your blood sugar levels.
Green vegetables slow down carbs absorbing speed into the bloodstream and control sugar.
Cook more at home
Rather than eating outside, try cooking at your home. Self-cooking will make you understand your budget.
Cooking also helps you to understand about the calories of the food and how you can cook health friendly. In fact, you will know how to turn your leftover foods into healthy food. Home cooking has shown the less risk of obesity among children.
Stay more active
Staying active is as important as eating healthy. Regular exercise helps to improve stress levels and reduce depression. It also changes your mood.
Exercising improve your emotional mental health also. Maintain an exercise schedule for losing weight and strengthening muscles by decreasing the risk of chronic diseases.
Make a goal to perform the exercise for 30 minutes every day. Gradually change the mode of exercise from moderate to high intensity. Start from walk and stairs exercise.
Get enough good night sleep
During a healthy eating plan, you need to get at least 7 to 8 hours sleep for good health.
Reduced sleep can hugely effect on appetite. Often you may feel hungry due to sleep deprivation which results in increased calories and weight gain.
Having enough good sleep helps maintain weight and improve blood circulation.
When you sleep, you enter in different sleep stages which involve light to deep sleep. It’s important to get the deep sleep to the brain refreshment and recharge the immune system.
Sleep deprivation causes the following things
- Reduce memory power
- Difficulty concentration
- Slower social processing and cognition
- Stress and anxiety
Whereas good sleep benefits for healthy skin, increased life expectancy, and good physical health.
Prepare at least one new healthy recipe every week
You may get frustrated by thinking what to eat in dinner and get bored of same recipes all the time.
You can always try something new which will bring a change in your routine and taste. A new recipe every week makes you enjoy your diet plan till you reach your health goal. Additionally, try making your favorite recipe health friendly.
Replace french fries with baked potatoes
Potato is very filling and common vegetable which can able to prepare instantly.
Expert says that different cooking method of potato provides different health effects.
You can bake 100-gram potatoes which have 94 calories while the same amount of french fries have three times more calories or 319 calories.
Besides that, deep fried french fries have unhealthy compounds such as trans fats and aldehydes.
Replacing your favorite french fries with boiled or baked potatoes is a healthy way to cut off the calories and avoid harmful compounds.
Replace chips with popcorn
You may think popcorn is a snack, yes but healthy. It contains lots of fiber and nutrients than the chips.
A 100 gram of serving popcorn contain 387 calories and 15gram – fiber. While the same amount of chips has 547 calories and less fiber (4 grams).
To get all benefits of popcorn, try to prepare it at home but avoid making it in the microwave. Popcorn is rich with whole grain which associates with health benefits such as reduce the risk of heart problems and inflammation.
Avoid commercial popcorns which contain sugar, salt, and fats which can be unhealthy.
Enjoy your healthy eating diet plan with homemade whole grain popcorn.
Choose Healthy Oils
Processed vegetable oils contain a high amount of omega-6 fatty acid which is unhealthy. The unhealthy oil includes sunflower, canola oils, soybean, and cottonseed and these oil lack omegas 3.
The ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 causes inflammation and result in chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, and osteoporosis.
Replace these unhealthy oils with healthy oils such as avocado oil, extra virgin oil, and coconut oil.
You can use these oil for cooking as well as dressing your healthy eating salads.
Eat a small portion
Eating a huge meal one time can overwhelm your digestive system. You need to split your meal into fewer portions.
Studies prove that the meal in big plate looks small and make you eat more. If you eat at a small plate, then your meal looks larger. Therefore, using large plates make you eat more which leads to weight gain.
If you don’t eat sufficient amount of food than you may miss managing your healthy eating diet plan.
Therefore, eat in smaller plates to that your brain might not feel sad and cause you overeating.
I hope you got the important and right tips for making a healthy eating plan. Go slow but make a steady change in your day to day life. Whatever you add in your plan to make sure it has adequate calories and low in carb. Have all the nutrients to get the total health benefits.