Portion Control
Portion control is a must in the basis of a healthy diet. Portion control helps you to get control over your serving sizes and eat in moderation.
Many people eat too much food in one sitting; this has a lot to do with how our society has changed its serving sizes in restaurants so people have no grasp on what a proper portion size is. Portion control will help an individual enjoy their food and is easy when you use normal visual prompts. For example a baseball is the same size as a green pepper, which is one serving of a vegetable. Not all foods are created equal but this example will help to control portion size when you do not have everyday measuring tools. Another great way to visually control portion size is to mentally divide your plate into quarters. One quarter should have a complex carbohydrate, another quarter should have a protein, and then the last two quarters or half of your plate should have vegetables. Choosemyplate.gov is an excellent resource to help you figure out portion control. Some challenges that people face with portion control is that our soceity is so used to eating bigger portions when eating out. One tip I have for people is to take your plate and before you start eating ask for a box and box up half of your meal, this way you are eating a better portion size and you will also have a meal for lunch the next day or even dinner.
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables should be a key part of your diet because they are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants and they have a very low calorie count.
Fruits and vegetables also can help to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer and they provide your body with nutrients for better health. “Plant foods are also filling because of their high fiber content, so they stave off hunger and reduce the temptation to binge eat later” (Carpenter, n.d.).
The challenge with choosing the right fruits and vegetables is keeping it fresh and not so boring. You can add fruit to your breakfast, you can cut up your fruits and vegetables so it is ready to eat for a snack. Try eating fruit with a low calorie/low fat dip or your vegetables with humus. I think one of the major challenges that keep people from eating more fruits and veggies is that we are a society on the go and many times it is not convenient. However, this is where cutting up your fruits and veggies ahead of time can make it convenient for people to take with them on the go.
Whole Grains
Whole grains are known for helping to lower the risk of certain cardiovascular diseases, such as heart disease and strokes. Whole grains are foods like brown rice, oatmeal, certain pastas and whole wheat flour. Incorporating whole grains into your diet will also help prevent gum disease, high blood pressure, developing asthma and inflammatory diseases.
Did you know that popcorn is a whole grain? It is a great healthy snack to have as long as you make it with little to no butter or salt.
Challenges to eating whole grains is that many of our food that we think contain whole grain actually contain enriched flour and such. It is very important to read food labels. Here is a great chart from choosemyplate.gov that shows you what to look for on the labels under the ingredients:
Whole grain ingredients
Fats
Fats are an important component to a healthy diet, however, there are certain fats that you should avoid. Saturated and trans fats should be limited or completely avoided if possible because they can increase your cholesterol and it is known to increase your likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes. Healthier fats such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats should be included in moderation to your healthy diet. You can find these healthy fats in foods like avocados, nuts, fish and even olive oil. Challenge with fats is knowing what good fats are compared to bad fats. If you just maintain the knowledge of where to get your good fats from the challenge becomes a little less.
Processed Foods
The last characteristic of a healthy diet is limiting processed foods. Sodium is one of the biggest contributors to high blood pressure which leads to developing a coronary heart disease and can also contribute to having a stroke. “Up to three-quarters of the salt in an average American's diet comes from processed foods” (Carpenter, n.d.). Salt is used in many processed products like canned soup, snacks, frozen meals, cereal, breads and pastas. Manufactures use salt to help sustain the shelf life of a product. Staying clear of processed foods high in sodium will help reduce the risk of developing life threatening diseases. Challenges associated with processed foods is that most of the food that you buy is processed. Many people eat frozen dinners for lunch and such because they are easy to grab and heat up for lunch. It is very important to read the labels and look at the sodium content. It really is not that much harder to make yourself a good healthy lunch that you can pack for work.
References
Choosemyplate.gov. (n.d.). Welcome To the Five Food Groups. Retrieved from:
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/
Carpenter, Poppy. (n.d.) Healthy Eating. Five
Important Characteristics of Healthy Eating.
Retrieved from:
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/five-important-characteristics-healthy-eating-5892.html
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