Six Tips for Eating Healthy

Everyone has different goals to shoot for in the new year and one of them is to eat more healthy. Here are six ways to accomplish that goal, and each are easy and painless making them quick to incorporate into an everyday diet.

Read the Labels and Ingredients

Included on each nutritional label are such facts as calorie count, the total fat or if trans fats are inside, and whether a food is high or low in a certain nutrient. Ingredients are listed in the order of quantity, with the first ingredients the major components of the item. Reading labels is not only helpful when choosing a product, but when comparing different brands of the same item, too. Look at the ingredient list to scan for other hidden ingredients such as artificial colors and flavors.

Limit Processed Foods

A simple path to eating healthy is to limit processed foods in the diet in the first place. Try scratch cooking (preparing a meal from scratch rather than using a processed version of it) for the majority of the meals eaten by the family. If time is an issue, try prepping recipes ahead of time or freezing fresh prepped ingredients for when schedules are tight, like chopped vegetables. When cooking at home, every single ingredient is known and approved by the cook. The types of fats are known as well as the amount of salt going into each dish.

Create a Menu Plan

When planning a week’s worth of meals, time and money budgets can easily be made or saved. A menu can list the days in print what the family will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will help eliminate the phrase ‘What’s for dinner?’ every night. By knowing what is planned for a meal, recipes are easily gathered and trips to the market can be limited. This not only saves time and money, but better choices can be made on the meals themselves helping to limit high-fat and highly processed QSR (quick serve restaurant) meals.

Choose Healthier Cooking Methods

Frying foods is an easy and quick way to cook, but there are healthier methods to cook. Try broiling or oven baking chicken breast and thighs, fish fillets, cut vegetables and other foods that are regularly fried, and discover that crispy and flavorful entrees can be made easily in the oven.

Go Whole Grain

Look at the color of a bread and it is easy to see which breads are made from whole grains: typically the darker the bread the less refined it is. Some brands of white bread contain whole grain flour. Read the ingredients and choose breads that are made from whole grains rather than refined white flour.

Portion Control

This is probably the easiest on the list. Look at the amount of food going on the plate in the first place. Here, scales and measuring cups are useful for more than baking. Measure out a portion of what is normally eaten and compare it to what an actual serving size is for that item. It may surprise you that more than a serving is actually eaten for a meal. If planning for leftovers or another meal, then cooking a large quantity of an item may be what is needed, but if only one meal is being cooked at a time, try to closely look at the serving sizes and prepare what is needed per person, per meal, at a time.

With these tips, a goal for eating more healthy foods is quickly and easily reached.