6 Tips to Have a Healthy Diet
Maintaining a good diet is essential to stay healthy. Besides, good nutrition and sports go hand in hand. Without a proper diet you can’t achieve your fitness goals. In this article, we’ll explain step-by-step how to make a healthy meal plan.
Six tips to a healthy diet
1.- Have a full breakfast
How many times have you heard about the importance of breakfast? We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but some people chose to skip it or eat an unhealthy breakfast.
Breakfast is the first meal of the day; therefore, it must provide you with enough energy to keep you going until lunch time. Besides, you must also keep in mind that when you wake up, you have been fasting for at least eight hours.
An ideal breakfast would be a natural juice (with no sugar), a coffee and toast. You have many recipe ideas that you can follow, so it’s impossible to become bored. And, the best part is, you can make a delicious and healthy breakfast in less than 10 minutes.
2.- Limit your sugar intake
Sugar has become the real enemy in nutrition. Basically, all food items we buy have added sugar, and consequently, there are more people suffering from diabetes or who are overweight.
Our advice is that you limit your sugar intake. You can consume sugar from natural sources such as fruits or healthy carbohydrates.
We also recommend that you avoid all types of sweets and pastries, fast food and sugary drinks, since they’re all rich in sugar and trans fats. Be especially careful with children’s diets, since sugary foods are very popular among young people.
3.- Include fiber
Fiber is fundamental to the function of your digestive system and intestinal transit. Including food rich in fiber to your diet is very easy. All you need to do is substitute bread, cookies and pasta with their whole-wheat versions, and shift from white rice to brown rice.
The difference is that the whole-wheat versions conserve the whole grain. You can identify them by their brownish color. In just a few days you’ll notice that problems such as heaviness in the stomach and constipation have improved.
4.- Include fruits and vegetables in all your meals
Experts agree that we must eat at least five meals a day. This is the best way to feel satiated and enjoy energy throughout the day. It’s important to include fruits and vegetables to each of your daily meals.
In the beginning, it might seem complicated to do this, but it’s in fact, really easy to achieve. Include salads to your dinners, have vegetables at lunch, have a fruit juice with your breakfast, and some fruits as in-between meals snack.
Fruits and vegetables are very versatile, making it easy to incorporate them into your dishes. There are so many different options that it’s guaranteed you’ll find recipes that you’ll love. With this you will add vitamins, minerals and other nutrients into your diet.
5.- Choose healthy fats
We need fats to keep our bodies working correctly. But, not all fats are the same nor do they have the same effects on your body. That’s why you must always chose the healthy kind.
Among this group, we have olive oil, fish such as salmon, mixed nuts, avocado, and sunflower seeds. These types of foods will provide you with healthy fats and with some other beneficial nutrients.
6.- Restrict the use of sauces
In many cases, you’ll make a healthy and balanced meal… and end up eating a bunch of empty calories. The ingredient to blame in this instance is the industrial sauce or dressing you add to salads or pastas.
Our advice is to stop buying these sauces and dressings immediately. If you read their nutritional value, you’ll see that they provide close to zero benefits to your body. They tend to contain a high amount of saturated fats, added sugar and salt.
If you enjoy sauces and dressings, you don’t have to give them up. In this article, you can find many healthy home-made recipes, that are easy to make. You’ll discover that you can keep enjoying your meals while also watching your diet.
It’s totally viable for you to have good nutrition and still eat meals that you enjoy. All you have to do is be conscious of the ingredients you chose and adopt healthy habits.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- H. Amparo. (2013). Alimentacion Saludable. Alimentacion Saludable, 140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2011.09.008
- OMS. (2012). OMS | Alimentación sana. Alimentacion Sana. https://doi.org/10.3746/jkfn.2014.43.11.1642