Healthy foods are important for your well-being. Eating a healthy diet can give you more energy, help you maintain a healthy weight, and even reduce your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Want to eat healthy but don’t know where to start? Here are four suggestions to help you start your journey to healthy eating.
- Eat smaller meals throughout the day.
Start your day with a healthy breakfast packed with protein, healthy fats, and fiber. Many studies have found that breakfast improves memory and concentration, and lowers the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
- Eat unprocessed plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
This adds fiber to your diet to help maintain gut health, lower cholesterol, control blood sugar levels, and maintain a healthy weight. It can also reduce levels of inflammation.
- Go easy on processed food.
Sweets, foods made from highly refined grains (white bread and white rice), and sugar-sweetened beverages can cause blood sugar spikes. It can lead to the development of disease.
- Increase the color of your diet by incorporating more fruits and vegetables.
Aim to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, and aim to prepare at least half of the vegetables on your plate. Don’t be afraid to try new foods. You might find a new love!
- Consume less salt and sugar
Filipinos consume twice the recommended amount of sodium, which increases the risk of high blood pressure and increases the risk of heart disease, and stroke. Most people get their sodium from salt. Reduce your salt intake to 5g (about 1 teaspoon) per day. You can make this easier by limiting the amount of salt, soy sauce, fish sauce, and other high-sodium seasonings when preparing meals. Avoid salty snacks; choose low-sodium products.
- Prepare your food correctly
Unsafe foods containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals cause more than 200 diseases, from diarrhea to cancer. When buying food at a market or store, check labels and the actual product to make sure it’s safe to eat. When preparing food, be sure to follow these 5 keys to making food safer. (1) Keep it clean. (2) Separate raw from cooked. (3) Cook thoroughly. (4) Store food at safe temperatures. (5) Use clean water and raw materials.
