Lifestyle
Food & Nutrition
Fitness
We’ve all heard that certain foods can make us sick, but many of us forget about the perils of the food we eat and drink every day. Even if you take care to avoid foods that are very likely to cause food poisoning, there are still plenty of other ways that the food you eat can negatively affect your health and shorten your lifespan. To ensure that you stay healthy no matter what you put in your mouth, here are seven tips on how to eat healthy without breaking the bank.
1. Eat Breakfast
Breakfast is one of those meals that’s often overlooked because people don’t want to waste time in the morning. But it is so important, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Most Americans don’t eat breakfast on a regular basis, but eating breakfast can aid in weight loss and help keep you full throughout your day. When you skip breakfast, your blood sugar drops, and you feel hungrier and more prone to snack all day long. A recent study found that women who ate breakfast lost twice as much weight as women who skipped their morning meals. If you don’t have time for a sit-down meal in the morning, try drinking smoothies or having some fruit before you head out for work or school. It will provide you with some energy to get through your day and make sure you aren’t starving by lunchtime.
Most People Don’t Eat Enough Vegetables: Studies show most Americans only eat about half of their recommended daily intake of vegetables each day.
2. Portion Size
When you’re looking to eat healthier, it’s easy to forget that a bag of chips and a candy bar count as diet food. Overeating once or twice will likely do little harm, but if you find yourself hungry all day long, every day, your food choices are making you sick. Begin by monitoring portion size. A serving of rice is 1/2 cup dry and one cup cooked; breakfast cereal ranges from 3⁄4 cup to 1 1⁄2 cups. The best way to be sure you aren’t overeating is to plan your meals out in advance—there will be less room for error if you know what foods are on your plate going into mealtime.
3. Make Healthy Substitutions
Though healthy eating can seem daunting at first, it doesn’t have to be. To make easy and fast changes that will have a big impact on your diet, start by making simple substitutions. If you’re baking a cake, use applesauce instead of oil or butter—the flavor and texture of your finished product will likely stay exactly the same. There are also healthier alternatives to most snacks; if you feel like having chips with salsa, opt for whole-grain pita chips instead. Speaking of whole grains, they’re a staple in many healthy food swaps—breads, cereals, and pasta made from whole grains contain fiber that helps fill you up and stay satisfied longer than products made from refined flours do.
4. Always Order Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Ordering a salad in a restaurant may not be easy, but it’s an excellent way to eat healthier at every meal. One of your best choices is always dressing on the side. Whenever possible, order salad dressings on rather than in. That way you can ensure you don’t overdo it. With vinaigrette dressing, that means using just one or two spoonfuls rather than slathering your greens in it (yes, some restaurants do douse their salads with cup after cup of dressing). At home, you can also apply that lesson—keep plain vinegar and oil around and add just as much as you like when making your salads. It’ll work out fine.
5. Eat at Home
In many cases, you can do a better job of eating healthier by simply eating at home. At restaurants and even in grocery stores, there are so many options that might seem healthy—but aren’t. Don’t fall into these traps! As our How to Eat Healthier Guide explains, we often make up for taking risks with our diets by under-eating when we get home, making it easy to go right back to where we started. If you eat at home more often than not, you’ll have a harder time overeating or skipping out on an important meal.
6. Change Up The Grocery Store
It’s not just what you put in your mouth that can have an impact on food health—how you shop for food can play a big role too. One of the most basic ways to approach food health is to buy local, fresh foods when possible and buy organic foods as much as you can. Fresh foods tend to be nutrient-rich, which means they’ll support good food health; when foods are made available via global markets, they’re usually picked before they’re ripe and lose their nutrients in transit. Even if it’s not organic, fruits and vegetables should still be in season, says Catlin Powers, RDN at Verde Healthcare. Freshness trumps all. Powers also recommend washing all fruits and veggies before eating or cooking them.
7. Share with Friends And Family
Having friends and family around to enjoy food with is a wonderful experience. When you’re eating with loved ones, it’s tempting to let go of your inhibitions and push yourself to eat more, more often (especially if you’re dining out). But when you eat with people who are making healthy food choices, it can be easy to push your own boundaries. The best way to combat that is simply by surrounding yourself with others who make good decisions about what they put in their bodies. Whether you live alone or have roommates, make an effort to keep snacks at bay so that when friends come over for dinner, there won’t be cookies or chips sitting on every countertop.
