We all want to be healthy, and most of us want to be thin. But research shows that almost all of us fall short of this goal, because the majority of Americans are overweight or overweight. Obesity can increase the risk of a long list of medical problems, and while it is feasible to be overweight while enjoying good nutrition and good health, most people don’t live that way. Our diets are full of “empty calories” in the form of processed foods that are poor in nutrients and rich in calories.
You will be healthier and eventually happier if you eat better research links good nutrition to good mental health. Here are some tips to help you adapt better eating habits.
Balancing macronutrients
If you eat more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. By that logic, you might think burning more than you eat means you will lose weight, but the reality is the problem is much more complicated. And, besides that, there’s more nutrition than simply eating less matter.
The most basic way to start tracking your nutrition is to balance your intake of three broad categories of nutrients, called macronutrients. Macronutrients are carbohydrates, protein and fat.
Calculate the best balance for you, and begin checking the nutrition facts of the foods you eat. You will start to feel better if you get better nutrition.
Know what’s really bad for you (and what’s in fact good for you)
It’s a common misconception that calories and fat are bad, but again, the truth is much more complicated.
Our body can become overly fat, but the reality is that our body in fact needs at least some fat and calories to carry out vital processes. And calories aren’t totally good or bad, nor are every type of calories created equal.
All you need to do is know the difference between good and bad fats. Avoid trans fats, however incorporate healthy fats into your diet. And keep your fat intake in balance with your intake of other macronutrients.
Now that you know things aren’t all the time as healthy or unhealthy as they appear, apply this lesson more broadly. Check the labels on “low-fat” and “healthy” foods to see what’s really going on. Is fat replaced with other high-calorie things – maybe even at the expense of nutrition? It is case with peanut butter and a few other foods, which in fact become less healthy in low-fat form.
Eat nutrient-rich “whole foods.”
There are many various vitamins and nutrients to pay attention to, but there are simpler ways to eat right than tracking every last little bit of nutrient you consume.
Instead of making a highly detailed (and unsustainable) plan to get the correct amount of every nutrient, simply focus on eating “whole foods.” Whole foods are unprocessed foods, which include things like vegetables and meat, rather than processed fast foods like potato chips and crackers.
Food loses quite a lot of its nutritional value when processed, which is how we end up with empty calories. Whole foods retain their nutrients, and often offer many of those nutrients in exchange for somewhat few calories. Vegetables, particularly, tend to offer quite a lot of caloric benefits. You can eat lots of vegetables and still not consume many calories, which makes vegetables an incredible food to fill up on if you are trying to lose weight.
Because they’re filling, sometimes low in calories, and usually filled with nutrients, whole foods should form the basis of your diet. Simply eating a wide range of whole foods frequently and making sure that whole foods are the core of your diet will go a long way towards providing you with a sustainable and balanced diet.
