Eat healthy: tips and tricks to follow a healthy diet
One of the main problems both to make diet as to be able to enjoy a healthy and healthy life, is to follow a feeding equally healthy and balanced. Eat Healthy It is something that almost becomes a question to consider, especially when we suffer from cardiovascular disease, we must lose weight, or because we want to eat in a much healthier way.
For this reason, we know that healthy eating may not be an easy option to follow, because if we are used to eating anything, it can be a difficult idea to follow.
However, there are a number of basic tips and tricks that can help you know how to eat healthy.
Useful tips for eating healthier
Follow a varied and balanced diet
Many times we make the mistake of eating anything,to get out of the way, especially when we are away from home or when we are even in it but do not have much time to prepare to eat. In fact, it is common to think that, to eat healthy, it is necessary to spend hours on food. However, did you know that to prepare something healthy, you do not really need a lot of time, or complicate yourself too much? But let's go in parts.
The most appropriate is to follow a varied diet, eating everything, but especially those foods are natural and healthy. This means that we must forget those foods rich in fats and sugars (especially processed ones), and replace them with fresh and natural foods.
For example? Opt especially for the following food groups:
- Fruits, vegetables and fresh vegetables:especially for seasonal foods, rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other essential nutrients for our body, not only for its proper functioning, but also for our health.
- Cereals, especially whole grains:cereals in their integral version (and we are not referring to the typicalbreakfast cereals) are always the best option, given that they are especially rich in fiber, and also provide complex carbohydrates (or, what is the same, slowly absorbed carbohydrates). They emphasize oats, wheat, rye ... And others popular today like quinoa, couscous ...
- Vegetables:They are delicious, as well as tremendously nutritious. For example, they stand out for being especially rich in fiber, and they complete our daily nutrition almost without any doubt. You can choose lentils, chickpeas, beans ...
- Fish:They are always adequate, in addition to being very nutritious. However, it is advisable to opt for small fish (due to its low or almost no mercury content). And if you opt for larger fish, such as salmon or tuna, consume them in small quantities several times a week.
- Meats:it is preferable to always opt for lean and white meats, instead of red meats (do not forget that the World Health Organization has recently considered it as a type of food whose excessive consumption can increase the risk of cancer, especially colon cancer ).
- Nuts:It is advisable to consume around 25 grams of nuts per day (that is, more or less those that fit in your hand). They are rich in healthy fats, which help protect both the health of the heart and the arteries.
Opt for seasonal foods
As you surely know, each season gives us specific seasonal foods, which provide us with those nutrients that our body needs for that particular time of year.
For example, during the summer we can enjoy foods especially rich in water, which is - precisely - what our body needs during the hottest days (watermelon, melons, mangoes, coconut ...). However, during the fall, foods with a greater energy intake stand out, as in the case of figs.
Eat calmly and slowly. And try to distribute the meals
Try to eat slowly and enjoy the food, chewing food well. In this way, you will not only learn to taste what you eat, to feel every bite, every texture and every flavor. You will also get a better digestion, since you must not forget that the process of digestion begins precisely through the mouth.
In addition, it is advisable to distribute the meals and the daily intake in 4 or 5 meals, trying to have a strong breakfast, have a convenient lunch and dinner not very strong.
Respect the times when you have to eat and try not to skip them. Yes, avoid pecking between hours.
Opt for healthier cooking
It is not only important to opt for healthy foods. We must also look at the cooking method we choose to cook them. For example, it is advisable to avoid fried and opt for much healthier forms of cooking, such as replacing fried foods with grills, roasting food ... Or other forms such as steam or oven.
Further, we must avoid not only the fried foods but also the breaded ones.
Avoid these foods
In addition to looking at what foods are especially suitable for enjoying a healthy diet, it is also important to consider what other foods - or food products - we must eliminate from our diet, or consume in smaller quantities.
They emphasize above all foods like fried and battered, pastries and sweets, sugary drinks, ice cream… Definitely, eliminate all those products rich in saturated fats and sugars.
Reduce the amount of sugar
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reduced the amount of sugar we could consume each day, limiting it to 12 tablespoons per day, not exceeding 10% of the daily caloric intake, after warning of its evident relationship with the increase in cases of obesity and overweight in most developed countries.
However, even though we control the amount of tablespoons of sugar we consume per day, understood by the tablespoons that we add to our cup of coffee with milk or the tea we drink mid-morning, do you know how much sugar we are eating? in fact, because it has been added to unsuspected food products? An obvious example is the case of bottled and industrial tomato sauces, yogurts with added sugars, packaged fruit juices ... Or even bread.
So, the key is not to reduce the amount of sugar that we consume, but to monitor the labeling of the food we eat every day: if we observe among its ingredients elements such as sugar, glucose syrup, sucralose ... It is best to avoid them. And do not be deceived: neither the Brown sugar nor panela are healthier.
... and follows an active and healthy lifestyle
Obviously, there is little point in eating healthier if we follow an unhealthy lifestyle. That is, if for example we smoke or drink alcohol, or we spend hours sitting in front of the computer or television and do not practice any exercise.
A healthy and balanced diet should also be completed by following an equally healthy lifestyle. It is essential to avoid tobacco and alcoholic beverages, as well as to practice physical exercise more often, which will give us outstanding benefits both for our health in general and for our own body in particular.
And, in addition, it will help us to feel better with ourselves. Did you know that physical exercise, practiced often and regularly, brings us happiness and helps us improve our mood ?.
If eating healthy is expensive ... how can we save in the shopping cart?
Although we are at a terrible time when it comes to the economic and financial crisis, we must not forget something even more important: our health. And not only our own health, but the follow-up of a healthy food to help us precisely that: to enjoy good health.
However, it is true that in times of crisis it can be even difficult to follow a balanced diet, probably because the budget we have is not the same as we had previously, especially if we do not have work, we receive the unemployment subsidy or They have lowered our salary. Follow some useful tips that will help you eat healthy and save money:
- Buy only what you need: it is often said that never buy on an empty stomach. And it is a maxim that you must take to heart, since it is proven that people who go to the supermarket with hunger finally end up buying more food products than originally planned. A good option is to take the shopping list and buy only what we have written on it.
- Buy seasonal products: like fresh fruits and vegetables, which besides being healthy and nutritious, generally have a very good price.
- Opt for white label products: Did you know that many of the white label products that many supermarkets sell have been produced by brands of recognized prestige in the food sector? They have an added advantage: they are cheaper and provide the same nutritional values.
- Buy the greenest meat: it is better to opt for a good fresh meat than for a frozen one. Therefore, the recommendation is to try to adapt to the most economical meat.
- Frozen fish: although the ideal is to consume it fresh, many food companies offer customers frozen fish with higher quality, and at affordable prices.
- Eliminate your diet precooked foods: they are not healthy, and also tend to be more expensive than if you opt for healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables.
- Eat at home: although from time to time it is fundamental to treat yourself like going out for a drink with friends or eating out, the best thing is to always try to eat at home. You will save money.
