How to eat healthy? For more than ten years, our societies have experienced a real awareness of food. “Eating healthy, eating better and responsible” is taking more and more place in our lives. It’s no secret that adopting a healthy and balanced diet helps the body to preserve itself and fight against disease. Consume less processed products, less fat and sugar, less salty foods… These measures are part of the first habits to adopt. To lose weight, it is not a question of going on a diet, but of making profound and lasting changes to one’s diet.
Beyond the choice of foods that you find on your plate, eating well also means eating in good conditions, regularly, slowly and calmly. It is not difficult to eat healthy, it is still necessary to have the will to upset some of your (bad) habits. And this, in order to adopt beneficial reflexes on your health. So how do you eat healthier? Here are our top ten tips for adopting a balanced diet easily and sustainably.
Ban processed, fortified or refined products to eat healthy
Our supermarkets offer us a large number of “ready-to-use” prepared products and meals. These products are perfect for our hyperactive lifestyles, where meals are very often taken on the go. But, full of saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, artificial flavors, or colorings and other additives, they are far from being our best health allies. All these substances are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, allergies, and even cancer. Not to mention the problems of overweight and obesity that they represent when we consume them very often.
Exchanges between content and container
In addition, not content with harboring quantities of salt and additives, metal cans and plastic packaging promote exchanges between the content and the container. In other words, certain chemical components used to manufacture your metal packaging and cans can end up directly on your food. This can have considerable consequences: in addition to destroying the taste qualities of food, these exchanges are extremely bad for the body. Choose fresh produce and glass jars.
Finally, the fashion today is for the famous miracle products, enriched with vitamins and nutrients to strengthen the immune system. It has to be said that industrial products are more a marketing argument than a scientific demonstration. Moreover, the studies carried out on these products are indeed far too little advanced to be able to conclude as to their true virtues on the body.
Beware of additives
So take a little more time each day to prepare a healthy meal from staple foods (pasta, brown rice, semolina, etc.), vegetables, fruit, etc. Your health and that of your family are at stake. In general, nutritionists recommend not to exceed three additives per food (colorants, preservatives, gelling agents, etc.). Obviously, if they are totally absent, it’s even better! They are easily spotted in the list of ingredients, they are all the elements preceded by the letter E.
Avoid saturated fatty acids, trans fats and sugars
Responsible for the appearance of many pathologies, sometimes severe, saturated fatty acids, trans fats and carbohydrates are not only present in large quantities in prepared meals. Indeed, they are also found in other types of products, such as charcuterie, for example. These can contain up to 50% fat. It is therefore necessary to eliminate sausages, sausages, pâtés, and other rillettes from your diet. The white ham, without rind and low in sodium, can be maintained insofar as it remains quite lean. You can continue to eat fats, but in this case you have to choose good fats! These are more specifically mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids such as omega 3, 6, 7 and 9 fatty acids (1) (2). These are essential for the proper functioning of our body. Omega 3 in particular are very popular, they can also be consumed in the form of omega 3 capsules in addition to a varied and balanced diet.
Avoid sugar and synthetic sweeteners
For their part, sugary and/or alcoholic drinks are not left out. For some sodas, a 1.5 liter bottle can be around 30 sugar cubes. A real calorie bomb! And the names “light” or “no added sugar” are not always synonymous with “better for health”. On the one hand, they do not prevent the product from containing a lot of sugar. On the other hand, sugar is very often replaced by synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame. These are responsible, according to some studies, for many cancers and other health problems.
They also disrupt our intestinal flora and therefore our microbiota (3). In addition, they reinforce the feeling of hunger! Finally, they are not without effects on blood sugar (4). In reality, the effectiveness of light products on weight and health has never been scientifically demonstrated.
In general, favor fresh fruit and vegetable juices or “homemade” lemonades.
Eat healthy: consume fresh, local or “homemade”
Eating healthy goes hand in hand with eating fresh or eating organic. Therefore, favor the small local producer, who offers fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables, grown in good conditions without pesticides or fertilizers. Go back to your local fishmonger and butcher, who know their distribution channels perfectly and offer quality products.
Take time to cook for healthy eating
Some everyday foods can even be made “homemade”, such as jam, sorbets, yogurt, bread, sauces. Not only will your products be healthy, without additives, colorings or preservatives, but it will also allow you to make real savings. Today, we no longer count the number of appliances of all kinds that are coming back into fashion: bread machine, pressure cooker, ice cream maker… All you need to do is take the time to cook your own food to cook quality and healthy products at home. daily. A few tens of minutes a day are enough to cook healthy meals for the whole family.
The importance of cooking
Also favor light cooking methods, which preserve the nutritional benefits of food, such as baking or steaming. Some types of cooking, such as frying, are excessively fatty and affect the nutritional quality of food. Others, such as the grill and the spit are likely to burn the food, and therefore the nutrients it contains. Limit them to occasional pleasures, but don’t use them daily.
Accompany your meals with wholemeal bread
When you think about starting a diet, bread is often the first thing you remove from your eating habits. Indeed, it contributes to the increase in the level of sugar in the blood. And yet, in reasonable quantities, it contributes to the balance of all your meals. So how do you go about consuming it healthily?
Doctors and nutritionists recommend a daily consumption of bread between 60 and 100 grams maximum. Rich in B vitamins, fiber, and protein, it is also very low in fat. Avoid industrial breads and other sandwich breads, enriched with preservatives and salt. Conversely, prefer wholemeal bread, rich in fiber and cereals, such as rye, sourdough or spelled bread. You can also eat wholemeal bread. Wholemeal and integral flours retain the nutrients present in the bran of the wheat seed or any other seed.
Remember to consume fiber to eat healthy!
It is in the bran that the dietary fibers are also concentrated, beneficial for our transit. Fiber also helps regulate cholesterol (5) and blood glucose (6). We must ensure that we consume them in sufficient quantity to enjoy their benefits. It is advisable to consume between 25 and 30 grams of fiber each day, especially in order to maintain the balance of the microbiota (7).
Vary the flavors with aromatic herbs and spices
If we know the taste qualities of spices and aromatic herbs in the seasoning of our dishes, their nutritional benefits and their preventive action against certain diseases remain largely unsuspected. Clove, and its anti-inflammatory properties, curry, and its action on bad cholesterol, nutmeg, and its antibacterial properties, cinnamon, and its contribution in the regulation of digestive disorders and its antimicrobial properties (8) … Not only do they provide no calories, but they naturally help to limit excessive salt consumption, which is responsible for high blood pressure. Taking the time to cook your meals allows you to consume more spices and aromatic herbs, to the detriment of salt and other flavor enhancers found in commercial products.
Eat fish twice a week
Salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, fish, whatever it is, constitutes a basic ingredient for those wishing to eat healthier. Rich in omega 3 and vitamins A, B, and D, it proves to be an excellent ally for the brain (9), skin, sight, heart and degenerative diseases linked to aging (10).
The champion in all categories remains unquestionably the sardine, even the bones of which are beneficial to the body. Packed with calcium, sardine bones preserve and strengthen bone tissue, thus preventing the onset of diseases such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis. Once again, favor your neighborhood fishmonger, rather than fish sold vacuum-packed. It should be consumed twice a week as part of a balanced diet. Other essential fatty acids can be taken from vegetable oils. Remember to diversify them to maximize your intake of good nutrients.
Eat more fruits and vegetables daily
Impossible to eat healthy without going through the fruits and vegetables box. Indeed, we all have in mind the famous refrain encouraging us to “eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day”. This is all the more true for vegetables, whose almost zero caloric intake and nutritional properties make them foods to be consumed at will. Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc.) are particularly good for your health, as they are rich in fibre, vitamin C and beta-carotene.
It is best to consume fruits and vegetables in season, that’s when they are tastier and offer better nutritional quality. So remember to develop your cooking recipes based on seasonal fruits and vegetables. This way you ensure that they contain a maximum of good nutrients.
Remember that the skin of fruits and vegetables concentrates a large amount of antioxidant vitamins and nutrients. So don’t hesitate to consume it after carefully washing it with water. Ideally, preference should be given to local fruits and vegetables grown organically. Free of pesticides, they do not undergo any treatment likely to alter their nutritional qualities.
Shop online to choose better
We have all happened at least once in our life to go shopping on an empty stomach, whether around noon or late afternoon and to be irresistibly attracted by high-calorie products that meet a immediate need to eat by listening more to our belly rather than our brain or our reason. Our shopping was therefore more quantitative and did not always contain food suitable for a healthy and balanced diet and provided for when entering the store. Among the advantages of shopping online, is not only that of being able to control your budget and expenses but also and above all that of choosing good foods, healthier and more satisfying, without being tempted by odors or marketing traps.
By doing your shopping online more regularly, you will avoid spending more than necessary and you will be able to select quality and less processed foods, while taking care to check the foods that are already at home and that you do not have. not necessarily need to redeem.
Eat as diverse a diet as possible
A healthy diet is a varied diet, which involves several food families at each meal. Among them, fruits and vegetables, dairy products in moderation, meat, eggs, fish or vegetable proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
It is also a diversified diet. That is to say, adopt a diet that brings together different products within the same family of foods. For example, the family of cereals and starches includes bread and rice as well as potatoes and pulses, to be varied at each meal. In the same way, it is advisable to alternate between meats, fish and eggs, or even milk, cheeses, and yogurts.
Following the rhythm of the seasons, relying on recipe books and other applications, cooking at home… All these solutions allow you to vary your diet easily and sustainably. If you’re short on ideas, the calendar of seasonal products should help you find new recipes and ever more varied meals. Remember to display it in the kitchen or consult it every month.
Learn to decipher the labels of your products
Eating healthy is almost inseparable from good food education. Thus, to be certain of adopting a healthy diet, it is essential to know how to read and understand the labels of your products. Favor, first of all, products with the red label, or the AB label (from organic farming). Also banish products packed with additives (preservatives, sweeteners, artificial flavors, etc.), visible on the label under the letter E. Also pay attention to sugar, very present in many industrial products.
Also keep in mind the recommended daily allowances. Thus, nutritionists advise not to exceed 10 grams of fat per 100 grams of food, 15 grams of carbohydrates per liter of drink, or 1 gram of salt per 100 grams of food.
Finally, of course, respect the expiry dates of consumption and optimal use. After these deadlines, the products may either have lost their nutritional properties, or be simply unfit for consumption. Attention, many remain consumable after the date: do not waste! Set up a menu calendar so that you do not lose any product and thus act both for the planet and for your purchasing power.
Consult a nutritionist
We know that adapting your diet according to your tastes and nutritional needs is not always easy to implement. Have you thought about consulting a nutritionist to help you implement a healthier diet? Whether you want to lose weight, gain it or maintain your healthy weight, eating healthy is essential for your health. A nutritionist can then help you find a balanced diet by combining pleasure and health while directing you towards a diet adapted to your objectives.
Nevertheless, finding the right nutritionist can sometimes seem complicated. To make your job easier, you can go to the Terra Naturel website, the Directory of therapists, to find the professional you need easily and quickly. Within this network, you will also be able to consult the detailed files of each nutritionist, containing in particular the prices and schedules, the diplomas and training, but also the professional experience of the practitioner.
Adopt good eating habits for healthy eating
Indeed, healthy eating is not just about watching what’s on your plate. It also means adopting good eating habits that will allow you to eat and digest in the best possible way.
Thus, it is essential to really enjoy your meal, by devoting the necessary time to it. Chew food thoroughly. This will not only allow you to appreciate what you are tasting, but also to secrete satiety hormones after fifteen to twenty minutes. You will then eat less, and you will thus facilitate your digestion. Also be sure to eat raw foods at the very beginning of a meal. They also aid digestion.
As you will have noticed, it is not so difficult to eat healthy and balanced. Even if you have little time, for personal or professional reasons, these few tips are really very simple to put in place, with a minimum of willpower. Once your eating habits are changed, the positive effects on your body will not be long in coming.
