Simple Strategies for Better Nutrition

Healthy eating is not about strict nutrition philosophies, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. It is about staying as healthy as possible. Choose the foods, which improve your health and help to prevent such conditions as cancer and diabetes.

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Healthy Food

Quick Tips for a Healthy Diet

• Eat a wide variety of nutrient-packed foods every day especially vegetables, whole grains and fruits. Just be sure to stay within your daily calorie needs. Different foods do different things in the body, for example, some provide energy, and others provide vitamins, minerals and so on.

• Vary your vegetables. Eat more orange and dark green vegetables such as carrots and dark leafy greens. Include beans and peas such as red beans, split peas and lentils more often.

• Eat regular meals – start your day with a healthy breakfast, it will help your metabolism. Eat the majority of your daily calories early in the day to give your body time to work those calories off. • Limit your intake of fat, saturated fats, trans fats and cholesterol.

• Limit your intake of salt (sodium), added sugars and processed foods.

• Choose foods rich in fibre such as fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes - foods rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol.

• Drink at least 6 to 8 glasses of water every day.

• Keep portion sizes moderate.

• Be active and stay at or reach healthy weight. Know that if you eat 100 more food calories a day than you burn, you will gain about 1 pound in a month and about 10 pounds in a year. To lose weight, it is important to reduce calories and increase physical activity.

• Include lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts in your diet.