Healthy Eating - Basic Principles

Variety and quality are two essentials when it comes to eating well and reducing your risk of chronic disease. While the basic principles of healthy eating are quite simple, unfortunately the majority of people fail to follow them, and end up looking like Homer Simpson. ->

Embrace variety. Don’t base your diet predominantly on just a few foods. Consuming a wide variety of healthy foods, especially nutrient-dense, high-fiber vegetables and fruits in a rainbow of colors, provides you with the phytonutrients (plant chemicals) you need to stimulate your body’s immune cells and infection-fighting enzymes and prevent disease.

Avoid processed foods. Your diet should consist primarily of whole foods that haven’t been adulterated by processing or the addition of sugars, a lot of sodium, trans fats, and preservatives. Evaluate the quality of the carbohydrates, protein, and fats you eat and learn how your food is produced. Be aware that the nutrient value of the animal protein that ends up on your plate can vary widely depending on what food was available for that cow, pig, lamb, chicken, or fish to eat.

Avoid empty-calorie foods and beverages. Some foods and beverages, such as packaged baked goods and sugary sodas, are filled with empty calories to begin with; while others, like white bread and white rice, are stripped of their nutrients and fiber during processing, destroying their nutritional value.

Remember that taking vitamin or mineral supplements is not a substitute for a healthy whole-foods diet. Be aware that calories count, but…stop obsessing about calories, grams of fat, carbohydrates, protein, or anything else. Counting every calorie and weighing your food down to the ounce is simply not conducive to a pleasurable lifestyle or useful for keeping extra weight off over the long run. When you make healthy food choices most of the time you will be satisfied with reasonable food quantities, and counting becomes unnecessary.