We all know that healthy food is good for us but how many times have we promised ourselves to change our habits?
Eating healthy neither means we have to deprive ourselves of our favourite foods, nor does it mean weighing and measuring every morsel before consuming it. All it takes is a few changes to our lifestyle and eating patterns. Here are 10 simple rules to healthy eating:
**1. Natural, raw food should make 80 per cent of your diet. Natural and raw means anything that is not processed. Eating fruit and vegetables in their raw state is much better than cooking them. An apple is more beneficial than apple pie, for so much refined stuff has been added to the pie, like sugar and flour. Consuming whole fruit and vegetables fills you up faster because these are high in fibre, unlike most processed foods. The result is that you don’t feel hungry right afterwards, like you do after eating a processed diet..
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**2. Try to ‘ supplement’ your diet with lean protein like chicken and fish and cut back on your consumption of red meat to just three times a week. Adding non-animal protein like lentils, chickpeas and beans to your weekly menu will positively affect your overall health.
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**3. Add healthy oils like olive, canola or soybean to your cooking. Stay away from partially hydrogenated oils like ghee and margarine. Butter may be consumed but in a minimum quantity. Margarine is no longer considered to be a healthier alternative.
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4. Try to drink only clear beverages like water and green tea. Additives like sugar or sugar substitutes as in calorie-free sodas and drinks are actually worse than their full-calorie counterparts. Juices considered very nutritious, are actually full of sugar and not a healthy option at all. Eat whole fruit instead of drinking juice and you will get all the nutritional benefit and taste.
**5. Stay away from fast foods as much as you can. Not only are they deep fried (causing arteries to clog and are fattening) but they are also highly processed, which means that all the nutrition has been taken out of them. Why would you like to eat something that has absolutely no nutritional value, is fattening and empties your wallet all the way to the last rupee for a single meal.
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**6. Avoid anything that is labelled ‘fat free’. That is a misnomer, as it might be fat free but not necessarily low in calories. Fat is what gives food its flavour, and when it has no fat, sugar and other high-calorie alternatives are added to make it more palatable. Sugar is much worse than fat. Low fat items are still a tad better than completely fat free items.
****7. Cut out white rice and white flour products from your daily meals and you will completely do away with weight gain. Eat whole grain bread and brown rice, both being wholesome and rich in fibre. After cutting out processed rice and flour from your diet you will feel like a new person.
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8. Try to eat a little something every two to three hours. Note that eating every two to three hours doesn’t mean eating full meals but a nutritious snack. Having three full meals a day is no longer considered healthy. Your body requires fuel for energy every couple of hours, and when we go too long without eating, we tend to binge on anything we can get, which in most cases turns out to be junk food.
**9. Snack on nuts or a small amount of dried fruits (not too many though, for they have a high sugar content) fruits, chopped or sliced vegetables with hummus, peanut butter with whole grain crackers or even chickpeas with yogurt. All these snacks are good for you and will keep you fuller longer. Stay away from crisps, chips and all kinds of crisp deep fried stuff which is full of fat and has zero nutritional value.
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**10. The last and most important tip incorporates all the advice given above. Take it slow and steady. You cannot change your habits overnight so start with a few and take it from there.
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Remember !!!
you don’t completely need to give up all your favourites, just reduce their quantity and focus more on the quality and nutritional value of the food you consume. When you shed those extra kilos and look and feel healthier, you will not regret healthy eating.
