Every single day we make several choices regarding food. What to eat, how much to eat, how often to eat, and the list goes on and on. But do we make those choices wisely? Do we think about what we are putting into our bodies or do we just eat?
We have never had so many options available and yet we have never been more confused. Shouldn’t we be the healthiest we’ve ever been with so much nutritional data available? Well, it happens to be that it is the other way about.
Healthy eating is not as complicated as it looks if you have some guidance. I don’t believe in universal diets we all can follow, but even though everybody is different and we all have different needs, there are some simple rules you could adapt to your everyday life in order to eat healthier. In January the USDA and HHS provided simple dietary guidelines to help Americans make healthier food choices:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables
- Eat a variety of vegetables, especially dark-green, red and orange vegetables in addition to beans and peas
- Use healthy oils instead of solid fats
- Decrease your sodium intake
- Increase your whole grain intake
- Reduce the intake of calories from solid fats and added sugars
- Drink water instead of sugary drinks
- Increase the amount and variety of seafood consumed by choosing seafood in place of some meat and poultry.
For the complete USDA and HHS dietary guidelines go to Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Healthy eating will lead us to a better life, period. We do so many things to make our lives better, but sometimes we lose focus and we forget about one of the most important ones. If it is said that we are what we eat, why don’t we eat better?
