Top Ten Healthy Eating Habits You Should Adopt

INTRODUCTION

Healthy eating means eating a variety of foods that give you the nutrients you need to maintain your health, feel good, and have energy.

 

There is this popular saying, "What you eat you become," It is advisable to eat healthy as to live a healthier life. Do you know it's not all you eat that does your body good on the long run? The food you eat can affect your health and your risk for certain diseases. To eat healthier food, you may need to change some of your daily habits. You also may need to change some things in your environment. Your environment includes everything around you, like your home or the place you work.

Many people who struggle with their health or weight say they've tried every diet or food plan under the sun, without any long-term success.The changes they make end up being short term and their old eating habits soon return, leaving them disheartened and demoralized.The reality is that there's no need to cut whole food groups or deny yourself the pleasure of eating.

Top Ten Healthy Eating Habits

1. Pay attention to your food.

You need to pay more attention to what you eat. Be more mindful when making food choices,

2. Avoid Processed Food

Many of the packaged foods you buy today are aimed at convenience and involve the minimum of preparation time on our part - but they're not that healthy. Most processed food contain preservatives, man-made colourings and other added chemicals in quantities enough to affect our health on the long run. 

3. Cook More

The best way to know the content of our food is to make it yourself, this gives the room to select beneficial ingredients to be used during the course of food preparation.

4. Read ingredient labels.

A quick scan at the ingredient label gives you an idea of what we are about to consume. This can help cut back on added sugar or eat less sodium—whatever your specific healthy-eating ambition.

5.Change to Healthy Cooking Methods

The more you "do" to your food, the less it does for you. So avoid things like deep-frying, which drenches your food in unnecessary calories, and boiling vegetables until they're drained of colour, as this will sap them of nutrients.

6. Eat More Veggies and Fruits

Consume more fruits and vegetables “Every fruit and vegetable has different colors based on the different minerals, vitamins, phytochemicals, and antioxidants it contains. These are vital for staying healthy.

7. Choose Healthy Whole Grains

Focus on adding healthy food to your diet, rather than just taking unhealthy foods away by choosing whole grains over refined "white" varieties as the former offer far more nutrients and fibre.

Whole grains tend to have more texture, flavour and nuttiness & a lower GI (glycaemic index), so they help keep you feeling fuller for longer and maintain your energy levels and concentration .

8. Use smaller plates.

Another way to help control your portion sizes? Simply use smaller dishes. In today's supersized world, it can be hard to know what a healthy portion looks like. All the advertising we see seems to be aimed at encouraging us to eat and drink a lot. Plate sizes in restaurants get bigger and bigger, as do the servings themselves. In a nut shell, eat healthy portion sizes.

9. Drink More Water.

Water is essential for life - it's required for digestion, absorption and transportation of nutrients, for elimination of waste and to regulate body temperature. If you drink lots of sugary drinks, try swapping them for unsweetened seltzer water.

10. Plan Your Healthy Shopping

Planning is very essential, you need to plan what is to be taken as food else it becomes too easy to eat takeaway if there's nothing in the fridge or put together something naughty when it's filled with unhealthy foods. Create a shopping list based on healthy options for each of your meals and snacks during the week, and then set aside a regular time to shop.