When you start living a healthier lifestyle and making changes in the types of foods you eat, it can lead to a much better quality of life. There are a number of ways that professional dietitians use to make eating healthy an everyday occurrence.
Eating a full five servings of fruits and vegetables every day is important for several reasons. First, fruits and vegetables both provide vitamins and minerals crucial for your body’s operation. Both are full of water, and foods that contain water (fruit, vegetables, beans) are much more filling than dry, processed foods.
If you don’t like taking vitamins, ask your doctor or pharmacist about getting liquid vitamin drops. These can be added to any beverage and are especially tasty with fruit juice. The juice essentially hides the flavor and your taste buds won’t even know you’ve taken a vitamin.
When considering a diet that provides an adequate nutrition level, be sure to include snacking as a part of your regular day. This will ensure that your metabolism stays in shape. Not everyone can eat six meals as recommended, due to obligations with friends or family. Be sure to snack on healthy foods such as toasted almonds or dried fruit.
For better nutrition, eat your favorite fruits and vegetables raw instead of cooked. Raw produce contains many vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that steaming, boiling and frying removes. It is also a good decision to eat the skin of the fruit or vegetable, if possible, as most of the nutrients are near the surface.
To increase your ability to concentrate, add plenty of iron to your diet. Iron helps your body to distribute oxygen, and not consuming enough of it can make it very hard to think clearly. Soybeans, lentils, and spinach are among the world’s most iron rich foods. Other good sources of this nutrient are kidney beans and venison.
Be aware of what you drink. Avoid any drinks that contain alcohol or sugar, replacing them with water, low-fat milk or tea. Sugary drinks are packed full of empty calories that add no nutritional value to your diet. Drinking one sugary drink a day can cause you to put on unnecessary weight, and increases your risk of developing high blood pressure.
For a quality nutrition plan avoid eating foods that are rich in fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, or polyunsaturated fat. All fat is fat, the terms they use simply mean “deep fried” or chemically altered. No matter how you look at it, eating too much fat is absolutely horrible for your body.
Focus on food labels. Always look at the fat and sugar content of foods when shopping. Check the ingredients list, as they are listed in order of weight. Certain nutritional food claims can be misleading. ‘Light’ or ‘reduced fat’ may be just that, but it can still be very high in calories, due to the sugar content.
In a 100 gram serving you will find 14 grams protein grams. You can use Quinoa in many dishes as well. It can be used with rice, or even make a nice sweet when added to apples and cinnamon.
Everybody needs to chew their food, but did you know that taking about 10 to 15 seconds to chew will help in your weight-loss effort? Taking this time to chew makes you more aware of what you are doing and will keep you from overeating as you realize when you are getting full.
So whether you need nutrition advice to lose weight, combat illness, or just improve the way you look and feel, making the effort to watch what you eat and drink can significantly change your life. The proper nutrition will provide your body with more endurance, energy and strength to carry you throughout the day.
