Tips for Healthy Eating
Here are the top five tips we took away from our lunchtime chat:
1. Hit the storesAll the experts shop regularly for fresh produce, lean proteins, and fresh whole grains. If good stuff is in your kitchen, it will be on your plate.
2. Be a little obsessive...It takes planning to get enough fruits and vegetables; the standard recommendation is five servings a day, but our experts aim for closer to 10. An example of a healthy eating plan is the DASH diet; go to www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/ for specifics.
3. ...But be ready to bend your own rulesA change in marital status or employment, a newly empty nest, midlife motherhood -- all can affect your habits. Eating well requires ever-evolving strategies that work with your life.
4. Open your ovenHome cooking lets you control portion size as well as fat and calorie content. Brush up on quickie 30-minute recipes with a new cookbook.
5. Don't drink your caloriesLiquid carbs -- juice, soda, and alcohol -- can add hundreds of calories to a day without much nutritional payoff. You're better off drinking water and eating whole fruit, which has fiber (juice doesn't); when you have an alcoholic drink, cut back elsewhere in your day to compensate for the calories.
Carla Rohlfing Levy writes frequently about nutrition, health, and fitness.
Originally published in MORE magazine, May 2004.
