Healthy Eating

11 Tips For Selecting Only The Best

Healthy eating not only promotes weight loss, but will boost your energy level, stave off illness, improve your skin and regulate your moods.

Integrating small changes into your daily routine will have a great impact on your long-term health.

It can be overwhelming to try changing everything overnight. Which is, in large part, why people fail in their attempts to "get healthy."

Read our tips on maximizing your health with 11 simple practices.

Educate yourself
Make it a point to continuously learn about healthy eating and implement the simplest practices first. Then add to your good habits with the next most logical changes.

Read labels
Look at the food nutrition labels on your packaged foods. Take into account the number of calories, the percentage of your daily fat intake, total carbohydrates, and sugar grams. A good marker is to keep sugar below 6 grams and daily fat intake below 10% for most foods consumed.



Sodium is the other culprit that must be monitored. It's amazing the ways that sodium (salt) creeps into our diets. Be vigilant about checking the sodium content of all foods you consume (especially processed and/or convenience foods). You'll benefit from lower your blood pressure, and your body will retain less water, aiding in weight loss. As a general rule, try to keep your sodium intake between 1500 - 2500 mg per day (on the lower end if you have high blood pressure).

Get organized
Healthy eating begins at the grocery store. Stock your cupboards with quick, convenient, healthful foods. You'll have everything on hand for preparing nutritious meals and making good choices at snack time.

Learn simple recipes
Especially for your favorite foods. A few modifications can take an artery-clogging, hip-widening meal to a tasty, nutrient-providing version.

Explore new cooking methods
Try poaching, steaming or baking, rather than frying.

Eat more raw foods
Cooking processes can greatly diminish the nutrients in foods. Incorporate raw foods whenever possible to reap the full benefits of

Buy local produce or grown your own
The longer a food sits after picking, the more nutrients are lost. Growing your own produce or buying organic, local fruits and veggies can increase the amount of nutritional value you're getting from the foods.

Try natural sweeteners
Natural sweeteners such as Stevia, Agave and Yacon help to reduce your calorie intake. These sugar substitutes are not only tasty, they're minimally processed, low-glycemic, organic and kosher.

Only the best fluids
An awareness of the amount of calories we consume through the liquids we drink is imperative. Here are some ideas for keeping a good balance...

• Drink water to lose weight and improve your health. Replace calorie-laden beverages with pure, simple water. Making just this one change will help you shed pounds and purify your body.
  
  
• Nutraceutical beverages are infused with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and flavonoids. They range from the red wine, with its antioxidant benefits, to specially formulated fruit juices, containing powerful mixtures of "good stuff". Nutraceuticals may be a nice addition to water in your daily fluid intake.
  
  
• Consuming moderate amounts of alcohol does have well-publicized benefits (i.e., anti-oxidant qualities). What's not so widely talked about though, is the fact that alcohol consumption slows your body's ability to burn fat by one third! Yikes! Not to mention that most alcoholic beverages are high in calories to begin with.

Experiment with new foods
The range of life-sustaining nutrients and minerals found in different foods is staggering. Eating a variety of foods broadens the scope of benefits you'll reap from your dietary choices. Not to mention adding interest at meal-time!

Know what to avoid
A knowledge of what NOT to put into your body is as important as knowing about the "good stuff." Scads of information has been published on the dangers of trans fats, but they are far from the only culprit. Empower yourself by learning about which ingredients to remove from your diet completely.