Many people strive to eat a healthy diet in order to treat or avoid illness, increase exercise performance, or maintain a healthy weight. If you keep up with food and nutrition headlines, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of disagreement about what constitutes a healthy diet. It’s simple to find lists of foods to avoid and foods to eat on a daily basis. Unfortunately, different sources’ lists may vary, and a food that is on one “never eat” list may be on another “always eat” list.
You could take a different approach to laying the groundwork for a genuinely healthy diet. Instead of focusing on what is unique, consider what is recommended. Here is some diet advice that almost everyone agrees on.
Eat your greens.
Green leafy vegetables are high in vitamins, minerals, and fibre, and they should be included in nearly every meal. There is some disagreement over how to prepare these vegetables, whether to eat them raw or cooked, and what to serve them with. You’re on the right track if you eat a lot of vegetables, sometimes raw, sometimes cooked, sometimes with dressing, sometimes plain.
Berry Good
Fruit is a tasty way to supplement your diet with vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Some people, on the other hand, believe that the naturally occurring sugar in some fruits makes them unhealthy, particularly if consumed in large quantities. However, almost everyone agrees that berries are a healthy fruit to consume. Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are high in antioxidants and flavorful.
Go nuts
Nuts are a delicious way to improve your diet’s nutritional value.
Nuts are good for you because they’re high in unsaturated fats, fibre, natural plant sterols, and vitamins and minerals.
Although different nuts have different nutrients, all nuts are considered to be healthy.
This includes tree nuts like almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, and pecans, which have the most research backing them up.
Look for plain nuts, as many varieties have added salt and sugar in their seasonings and coatings.
Eat less added sugar
Added sugar is probably the most significant issue that most people face when it comes to their eating habits. Aside from the extra calories and direct health effects of eating too much sugar, sugaring otherwise healthy foods like fruit and grains makes them unhealthy. Most processed foods, which are almost always high in added sugar, fall into this category. Everyone (except the food industry!) agrees that removing as much added sugar from your diet as possible is a good idea.
Drink water
Drink plenty of water.
At all times, water should be your drink of choice! Water provides hydration without the addition of sugar or calories, which is important for weight loss. Plain water is ideal, but flavoured water is preferable to sweetened beverages such as soda, sweetened tea, sports drinks, and many fruit drinks. Other drinks are fine to have throughout the day, but water should be your main source of hydration.
These suggestions will help you improve the quality of your diet while still adhering to recommendations that almost everyone agrees on. Keep in mind that someone promoting the “best” diet for better health is probably doing more than just eating well.
