Author: Gen Wright
Eating healthy does not mean having to eat bland tasteless foods or throwing out some of your favorite foods. It does not mean having to spend a fortune on specialty organic foods either. In fact, people can learn to eat healthier by making small simple modifications to their current eating habits. Healthy eating should be considered a lifestyle modification and not a short term diet. Rather you want to eat healthy in order to lose weight or just improve your health these quick and easy tips will get you started. Eating Healthy Tip #1 ? Reduce Sugar Intake Refined sugar is a processed item that gives you zero nutritional benefit. These empty calories can mount up fast and can risk you go over your total daily calorie intake maximum. Too many calories will create weight gain. Try to limit snacks high in sugar or seek out the sugar free versions of your favorite sweets. Look for the sugars in your beverages as well. A regular flavored pop has up to or exceeds 100 calories and 10 teaspoons of sugar. Drink diet drinks, or better yet, water. Statistics show that people who switched to diet pop and water instead of regular flavored drinks lost up to 20 pounds in just one year with just this alteration in their lifestyle. Fruit juices can also be high in sugars and calories so minimize these to just one 8 ounce glass a day. Eating Healthy Tip #2 Protein with Every Meal You should have protein with every meal. Protein requires more energy to digest which means you can burn more calories to process your meal. Protein can come from eggs, beans, lean cuts of meats, fish and even tofu. Eating protein not only helps burn more calories but helps to build lean muscle mass. The more lean muscles you have the higher your basal metabolic rate. This is the rate at which your body burns calories during the day with normal activities including sleeping. Your metabolic rate is responsible for 60% to 70% of the total calories you burn in a day. Eating Healthy Tip #3 ? Go Natural Eating foods in their most natural state will give you the most ?bang for your buck?. Meaning you will get a higher nutrient value from the foods in their natural state. When foods are processed they lose a lot of their health benefits and often raise the fat and/or calorie content. As an example, a large apple has 110 calories, 0 fat grams, 29 carbohydrates, 5 grams dietary fiber and 1 gram of protein. However a large glass of apple juice has about 150 calories, 0 fat grams, 36 grams of carbohydrates and 0 grams of dietary fiber and protein. So you can see that the processed item there are more calories and carbs and less dietary fiber and protein. Eating Healthy Tip #4 ? Make it Whole While eating foods in their most natural state is the best, there are moments when you will need processed foods. Breads and pastas are good examples of foods that cannot come in a natural state as they don?t grow on trees or in the ground. When choosing these processed foods you should find whole grain versions. When foods are made with 100% whole wheat you are getting more vitamins and minerals than foods made with processed flour. Wheat in its natural, unrefined state has many nutritional value including dietary fiber and is a great addition for your healthy eating habits. Eating Healthy Eating Tip #5 ? Add Variety Consume a variety of nutrient rich foods. There are more than 40 nutrients that you should consume each day. No individual food item can provide all of these nutrients, so make your meal plan varied and rich with nutrients. Be sure to eat the fruits and vegetables with all your meals. You need to get protein with every meal. Protein requires more energy to burn than fat so foods high in protein are also great for burning fat. Make sure to get your calcium needs also with milk, cheese and other dairy products. Opt for fat free or reduced fat products like skim milk or fat free yogurt. Statistics have shown that people who get 3 to 4 servings in a day of low fat dairy items lost more weight than those who did not add dairy in their daily diet. These are just a handful of tips to help you make minor changes to your lifestyle. By adopting these easy modifications you are on the path to eating healthy for life and losing weight.
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About the Author:
For more healthy ways to lose weight, check out these quick weight loss tips
Julie is the author and creator of Exercise 4 Weight Loss where you will find lots of tips and information on exercise and weight loss.
