- Healthy Eating Pyramid (Harvard)
There are many ways to alter diets to become overall healthier for you and/or your loved ones. If you have suggestions to add to the list, please send along, I would love to see them!
In my opinion we can’t be healthy all the time–some of the best things in life like ice cream and wine aren’t exactly in the all you can partake of category :) However, I feel that if we try to adjust our diet and lifestyle in ways to be more healthy it can really make a big difference. Here is my simple “healthier” list that I try to stick with:
- Buy whole wheat products whenever possible. Whole wheat bread, pasta, tortillas, etc. are all better choices than their white counterparts. Likewise, brown rice is better for you than white rice. In our family, we haven’t found a whole wheat pasta that we like (any suggestions??), but we always buy 100% whole wheat sandwich bread. The more whole wheat products you can incorporate into your diet, the better.
- Opt for the lower sugar variety. When the choice is available, get the lower sugar option. For instance, instant oatmeal and yogurts often come in “Regular” and “Lower Sugar” varieties. Even the low sugar ones contain a fair amount of sugar so will still satisfy a sweet tooth.
- For kids, have most drinks be either milk or water. Drinks like Gatorade and Coolaid add lots of calories with no nutritional value. Water, milk and/or soymilk should make up most of the liquid intake for kids. Make sure juices are 100% fruit juice… it is surprising how many “Juice” products on the market contain only marginal amounts of real juice.
- Stick mostly to fresh, nonprocessed foods. A box of macaroni and cheese may have its time and place, but for the most part try to avoid prepackaged and overprocessed foods. Fruit is always a great and easy addition to meals, and anytime you can incorporate fresh local produce into your diet you will benefit yourself and the environment. We have a toddler who is a picky eater… however, I have noticed a few healthy things he will regularly eat (cantelope, apples, cottage cheese). As a result, I always have these foods onhand to supplement all the things he tries and doesn’t like…
- Serve smaller portions. I recently read a book called the Blue Zone with an associated website http://www.bluezones.com/. One of the best suggestions I got out of the book is that you should eat until you feel 80% full. When hungry I find it is all too easy to load up our plates with too much food that we eat because it is already there… I have more recently put smaller servings, have left the table satisfied and in the last 2 weeks have lost a few pounds.
- Take a multivitamin and give a kids multivitamin to your kids. Even when we try to maintain a healthy overall diet for our family, it seems to me to be a good idea for us each to take a multivitamin in case there is something that we are missing.
