How to Eat Healthy Food Every Day Simple Tips for Healthy Eating from a Long Island RDN
I am often asked how to eat healthy. It is not difficult – and my reply is one sentence long:
Eat Real Food, Not too much, Mostly plants
Of course, this is an oversimplification, and not for everyone, but it makes the point
There is no one answer for everyone to stay healthy, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or confusing either. Some simple solutions include:
- Don’t Skip Meals
- Drink a lot of water
- Eat more plant-based meals
- Skip sugary drinks
- Get off the sofa
HEALTHY EATING HAS GOTTEN TOO COMPLICATED
- Populations eating a remarkably wide range of traditional diets generally don’t develop chronic diseases, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, to the same extent we do in the United States.
- There is no single ideal diet. The human is exquisitely adapted to a wide range of different foods and a variety of different diets – except the new Western diet.
Here are some suggestions to help you choose healthier foods:
WHAT FOODS SHOULD I SELECT?
We need to distinguish real foods – plants and animals – from the highly processed products of modern food science.
- Eat Food.
- Eat food bought at the peripheries of the supermarket.
- Eat only food that will eventually rot.
- Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.
- Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans.
- Eat your colors.
- Eat sweet food as you find them in nature.
WHAT FOODS SHOULD I AVOID?
- Avoid anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
- Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in a pantry.
- Avoid food products that have some form of sugar (e.g., fructose or alternate
sweetener) listed among the top three ingredients. - Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.
- Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
- Avoid food products that make a health claim.
- Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they are not.
- Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
- Avoid breakfast cereals that change the color of milk.
Everyone can implement a healthier eating plan. It’s not difficult. Once you decide to make changes, it just takes selectivity, thought, practice, and time.
