Healthy Eating   

Healthy Eating Tip 1: Set Yourself Up For Success

To set yourself up for success, think about planning a healthy diet as a number of small, manageable steps rather than one big drastic change. If you approach the changes gradually and with commitment, you will have a healthy diet sooner than you think.

• Simplify.

Instead of being overly concerned with counting calories or measuring portion sizes, think of your diet in terms of color, variety, and freshness. This way it should be easier to make healthy choices. Focus on finding foods you love and easy recipes that incorporate a few fresh ingredients. Gradually, your diet will become healthier and more delicious.

• Start slow and make changes to your eating habits over time.

Trying to make your diet healthy overnight isn’t realistic or smart. Changing everything at once usually leads to cheating or giving up on your new eating plan. Make small steps, like adding a salad (full of different color vegetables) to your diet once a day or switching from butter to olive oil when cooking. As your small changes become habit, you can continue to add more healthy choices to your diet.

• Every change you make to improve your diet matters.

You don’t have to be perfect and you don’t have to completely eliminate foods you enjoy to have a healthy diet. The long term goal is to feel good, have more energy, and reduce the risk of cancer and disease. Don’t let your missteps derail you—every healthy food choice you make counts.

• Try not to think of certain foods as “off-limits.”

When you ban certain foods or food groups, it is natural to want those foods more, and then feel like a failure if you give in to temptation. If you are drawn towards sweet, salty, or unhealthy foods, start by reducing portion sizes and not eating them as often. Later you may find yourself craving them less or thinking of them as only occasional indulgences.

• Think smaller portions.

Serving sizes have ballooned recently, particularly in restaurants. When dining out, choose a starter instead of an entree, split a dish with a friend, and don't order supersized anything. At home, use smaller plates, think about serving sizes in realistic terms, and start small. If you don't feel satisfied at the end of a meal, try adding more leafy green vegetables or rounding off the meal with fresh fruit. Visual cues can help with portion sizes–your serving of meat, fish, or chicken should be the size of a deck of cards, a slice of bread should be the size of a CD case, and half a cup of mashed potato, rice, or pasta is about the size of a traditional light bulb.

• Eat with others whenever possible.

Eating with other people has numerous social and emotional benefits—particularly for children—and allows you to model healthy eating habits. Eating in front of the TV or computer often leads to mindless overeating.

• Take time to chew your food and enjoy mealtimes.

Chew your food slowly, savoring every bite. We tend to rush though our meals, forgetting to actually taste the flavors and feel the textures of our food. Reconnect with the joy of eating.

• Listen to your body.

Ask yourself if you are really hungry, or have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty instead of hungry. During a meal, stop eating before you feel full. It actually takes a few minutes for your brain to tell your body that it has had enough food, so eat slowly.

• Eat breakfast, and eat smaller meals throughout the day.

A healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism, and eating small, healthy meals throughout the day (rather than the standard three large meals) keeps your energy up and your metabolism going.

• Avoid eating at night.

Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast for 14-16 hours until breakfast the next morning. Early studies suggest that this simple dietary adjustment—eating only when you’re most active and giving your digestive system a long break each day—may help to regulate weight. After-dinner snacks tend to be high in fat and calories so are best avoided, anyway. Greens. Branch out beyond bright and dark green lettuce. Kale, mustard greens, broccoli, and Chinese cabbage are just a few of the options—all packed with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K.

• Sweet vegetables. 

Naturally sweet vegetables—such as corn, carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, yams, onions, and squash—add healthy sweetness to your meals and reduce your cravings for other sweets.

• Fruit.

Fruit is a tasty, satisfying way to fill up on fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Berries are cancer-fighting, apples provide fiber, oranges and mangos offer vitamin C, and so on.

• Include a variety of whole grains in your healthy diet,

including whole wheat, brown rice, millet, quinoa, and barley. Experiment with different grains to find your favorites.

• Make sure you're really getting whole grains.

Be aware that the words stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or bran can be deceptive. Look for the words “whole grain” or “100% whole wheat” at the beginning of the ingredient list. In the U.S., Canada, and some other countries, check for the Whole Grain Stamps that distinguish between partial whole grain and 100% whole grain.

• Try mixing grains as a first step to switching to whole grains.

If whole grains like brown rice and whole wheat pasta don’t sound good at first, start by mixing what you normally use with the whole grains. You can gradually increase the whole grain to 100%.

• Monounsaturated fats,

from plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil, as well as avocados, nuts (like almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans), and seeds (such as pumpkin, sesame).

• Polyunsaturated fats, including Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids,

found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and some cold water fish oil supplements. Other sources of polyunsaturated fats are unheated sunflower, corn, soybean, flaxseed oils, and walnuts.

• Saturated fats,

found primarily in animal sources including red meat and whole milk dairy products.

• Trans fats,

found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

• Beans:  Black beans, navy beans, garbanzos, and lentils are good options.

• Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans are great choices.

• Soy products: Try tofu, soy milk, tempeh, and veggie burgers for a change.

Avoid salted or sugary nuts and refried beans.

• Dairy: 

Dairy products are rich in calcium in a form that is easily digested and absorbed by the body. Sources include milk, yogurt, and cheese.

• Vegetables and greens:

Many vegetables, especially leafy green ones, are rich sources of calcium. Try turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, broccoli, fennel, cabbage, summer squash, green beans, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and crimini mushrooms.

• Beans:

For another rich source of calcium, try black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, white beans, black-eyed peas, or baked beans.

• Avoid sugary drinks.

One 12-oz soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar in it, more than the daily recommended limit! Try sparkling water with lemon or a splash of fruit juice.

• Eat naturally sweet food

such as fruit, peppers, or natural peanut butter to satisfy your sweet tooth.

cane sugar or maple syrup

corn sweetener or corn syrup

honey or molasses

brown rice syrup

crystallized or evaporated cane juice

fruit juice concentrates, such as apple or pear

maltodextrin (or dextrin)

Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose, Maltose, or Sucrose

• Avoid processed or pre-packaged foods.

Processed foods like canned soups or frozen dinners contain hidden sodium that quickly surpasses the recommended limit.

• Be careful when eating out.

Most restaurant and fast food meals are loaded with sodium.

• Opt for fresh or frozen vegetables

instead of canned vegetables.

• Cut back on salty snacks

such as potato chips, nuts, and pretzels.

• Choose low-salt or reduced-sodium products.
• Try slowly reducing the salt in your diet

to give your taste buds time to adjust.

Think of water and exercise as food groups in your diet.

• Water.

Water helps flush our systems of waste products and toxins, yet many people go through life dehydrated—causing tiredness, low energy, and headaches. It’s common to mistake thirst for hunger, so staying well hydrated will also help you make healthier food choices.

• Exercise.

Find something active that you like to do and add it to your day, just like you would add healthy greens, blueberries, or salmon. The benefits of lifelong exercise are abundant and regular exercise may even motivate you to make healthy food choices a habit.

Healthy Eating Tip 2: Moderation is Key 

People often think of healthy eating as an all or nothing proposition, but a key foundation for any healthy diet is moderation. But what is moderation? How much is a moderate amount? That really depends on you and your overall eating habits. The goal of healthy eating is to develop a diet that you can maintain for life, not just a few weeks or months, or until you've hit your ideal weight. So try to think of moderation in terms of balance. Despite what certain fad diets would have you believe, we all need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to sustain a healthy body.

For most of us, moderation or balance means eating less than we do now. More specifically, it means eating far less of the unhealthy stuff (unrefined sugar, saturated fat, for example) and more of the healthy (such as fresh fruit and vegetables). But it doesn't mean eliminating the foods you love. Eating bacon for breakfast once a week, for example, could be considered moderation if you follow it with a healthy lunch and dinner–but not if you follow it with a box of donuts and a sausage pizza. If you eat 100 calories of chocolate one afternoon, balance it out by deducting 100 calories from your evening meal. If you're still hungry, fill up with an extra serving of fresh vegetables.

Healthy Eating Tip 3: It's Not Just What You Eat, It's How You Eat

Healthy eating is about more than the food on your plate—it is also about how you think about food. Healthy eating habits can be learned and it is important to slow down and think about food as nourishment rather than just something to gulp down in between meetings or on the way to pick up the kids.

Healthy Eating Tip 4: Fill Up on Colorful Fruits and Vegetables 

Fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a healthy diet. They are low in calories and nutrient dense, which means they are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.

Try to eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables every day and with every meal—the brighter the better. Colorful, deeply colored fruits and vegetables contain higher concentrations of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants—and different colors provide different benefits, so eat a variety. Aim for a minimum of five portions each day.

Some great choices include: Peppers, carrots, celery, beets, broccoli, egg plant, zucchini, tomato, squash, apples, pears, bananas, cherries, berries, oranges, all fresh and organic if possible.

• The Importance of Getting Vitamins from Food—Not Pills

The antioxidants and other nutrients in fruits and vegetables help protect against certain types of cancer and other diseases. And while advertisements abound for supplements promising to deliver the nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables in pill or powder form, research suggests that it’s just not the same.

A daily regimen of nutritional supplements is not going to have the same impact of eating right. That’s because the benefits of fruits and vegetables don’t come from a single vitamin or an isolated antioxidant.

The health benefits of fruits and vegetables come from numerous vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals working together synergistically. They can’t be broken down into the sum of their parts or replicated in pill form.

Healthy Eating Tip 5: Eat More Healthy Carbs and Whole Grains

Choose healthy carbohydrates and fiber sources, especially whole grains, for long lasting energy. In addition to being delicious and satisfying, whole grains are rich in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which help to protect against coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and diabetes. Studies have shown people who eat more whole grains tend to have a healthier heart.

A Quick Definition of Healthy Carbs and Unhealthy Carbs

• Healthy Carbs (sometimes known as good carbs)

include whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbs are digested slowly, helping you feel full longer and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels stable.

• Unhealthy Carbs (or bad carbs)

are foods such as white flour, refined sugar, and white rice that have been stripped of all bran, fiber, and nutrients. Unhealthy carbs digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar levels and energy.

Tips for Eating More Healthy Carbs

• Avoid:

Refined foods such as breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals that are not whole grain.

The Medical Perspective

Every doctor I have talked to says to eat a healthy diet and be sure to follow the guidelines set up by the FDA. 

Since the FDA allows Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's) in our food without proper labeling, any advice from the medical profession will be suspect. After all, if you eat healthy, you will not get sick and that would put a monkey wrench into the whole Healthcare System.



Medicines Two Choices for You

DR. RICK'S ADVICE

Consulting with a hands on Holistic Chiropractor is the best route to go to solve this difficult epidemic in our country. By having a guide and a coach who understands the nuances of your condition and can help you gain back control of your health is vital. Please consider this when choosing to help yourself.

Working with Doc Rick, who specializes in dietary and health concerns, is the best source for a solution to this concern. He has 40 years of experience in helping people with Nutritional Concerns. 

And if you have questions, Please call (845)561-BACK or (845)561-2225.



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