Eating healthy doesn’t mean following an extreme dietary plan, or denying yourself your favorite food. Rather, it’s more about eating foods that boost energy, improve your health, and balance the hormones. Chances are you’ve read countless articles on nutrition or tried a bunch of diets without success – which is why we won’t try to sell you another magic diet.
Our mission is to promote healthy living by way of eating nutritious whole meals and minimizing junk food. We’ve found that the simplest and most effective approach to dieting is to reduce the number of processed foods we eat and instead, eat more real food.
A good, healthy diet often times involves very specific foods and nutrients that are known to be vital to our health; but still, the overall dietary plan is what matters more and what determines your health. It is absolutely important that you substitute instant, processed foods with home-made meals whenever possible – because when we eat natural food it has an amazing impact on the way we look, think and feel.
Do I need to avoid some foods?
Your body needs a balance of vitamins, proteins, carbs, fat, fiber, and minerals, to function properly. Now, some of the more extreme dietary experts may disagree, but there’s no need to eliminate entire food categories from your diet, it makes more sense to eat the healthiest foods from each category. Let’s go through the basics of healthy eating:
Debunking food categories
Carbs: These are an important source of energy and should be part of your daily nutrition. The best carbs are complex, and unrefined; such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. Avoid eating white bread, starches, pastries, and sugar to prevent fluctuations in blood sugar, mood, and energy.
Fat: Some fats are healthy and some aren’t. Healthy fats (such as omega 3s) are vital to our health and play a major role in keeping our physical and mental health in check. Eating more natural fat (such as nuts, avocado) can also make it easier to lose weight.
Fiber: We need more fruit, vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts in our diet. Some of the benefits include a healthy heart, reduced risk of diabetes, and healthy skin.
Protein: Aside from animal products, you can get good amounts of high-quality protein from a variety of plants and seeds and this is important because without sufficient protein you won’t have the energy to go about your day.
How to make healthy meals
If possible, prepare your own meals. Cooking forces you to be more aware of what you put in your body, and as a result, you will consume less sugar, fat, calories, and other foods that leave you bloated and irritable.
Drink more water. This helps your body get rid of waste and toxins that cause tiredness, low energy, and headaches. You can also reduce food intake by drinking enough water.
Always read the labels. You need to be aware of what you’re purchasing and what those food labels say. Keep in mind that some manufacturers will pack huge amounts of sugar and processed fat and still label the food healthy.
Eat in moderation. Don’t stuff your body with large amounts of healthy food – this will interfere with the digestive process and leave you feeling sick. Moderate your food intake and reduce the portion sizes of “bad” food so that instead of craving them more, you eat just enough to keep the balance and follow it up with plenty of whole foods including greens and vegetables.
Plan your meals ahead. Healthy eating requires good planning. Start by stockpiling your kitchen with high-quality fruits, vegetables, cereal, meats, dairy, fish, oils, spices, whole grains, healthy snacks, and simple recipes. A good way to do that is by getting your groceries delivered by mercato.com. Pick a few recipes that you like and build your meal schedule around them.
