Food is one of the basic pillars when it comes to building good health along with physical exercise and night rest. Despite this, there are still many doubts about what a healthy diet should look like
Therefore, we are going to give you 10 strategies to make your diet healthier than ever.
Replace juices with whole fruits and vegetables
It is very common to have the typical orange juice or a fruit and vegetable smoothie for breakfast and it is not really an unhealthy food, but it can be improved. There are many advantages of the fruit that the juice does not have because they are lost during the processing of the piece.
First of all and most important is that fiber is lost. Fiber is a nutrient that is involved in delaying the onset of hunger and has many health benefits, including lowering the chances of colon cancer.
Delaying hunger is very important when we talk about losing body fat, since if we eat liquid foods (not to mention that juice has many more calories than fruit, since we use more than one piece to make a juice), gastric emptying is much faster.
Replace normal bread with whole wheat bread
Bread is another food that has been demonized and that is usually included in breakfasts in the morning. versatility when it comes to including other foods such as avocado, tomato, oil, cheese, etc.
The problem with normal bread is that all the fiber has been removed, so gastric emptying is faster and all the benefits of fiber are lost during its processing.
Replace breakfast cereals with other whole grains
Breakfast cereals are often full of free sugars (which have been shown to cause health problems) and very low quality fats like the hydrogenated ones.
They are very high in calories and you also have to eat a lot of this food to be satiated, especially if we take them with milk, which softens the food and makes it pass through the intestinal tract fairly quickly.
Therefore, it is best to replace this type of processed cereal with whole grains such as oatmeal. Oatmeal is usually associated with an unappetizing food, but you can really make many recipes and create delicious breakfasts that are very filling and healthy for our health.
Replace sugary drinks with water
Sugary drinks are a public health problem since in a short time there can be a very high intake of sugar. Just one can of Coca-Cola contains 35 grams of sugarsomewhat exorbitant.
It is normal that sometimes the transition from sugary drinks to water can be a bit difficult, so at the beginning we recommend that you go from sugary drinks to zero drinks (they have no sugar or calories). After, transition from zero drinks to water.
If fried foods are eaten, make them at home
Many people think that frying food is bad, but the truth is that it doesn’t have to be that way. It all depends on what surrounds that fry. For example, it is not the same to buy something pre-frozen and fried in low-quality oils as it is to fry yourself with extra virgin olive oil and fresh food.
We also do not recommend that you eat fried foods every day since they provide a lot of calories and consuming them consecutively can make us gain a lot of body fat.
Therefore, eat homemade fried foods occasionally (lunch or dinner with friends, celebrations, etc.) can be a good idea.
Increase the intake of legumes
Legumes are one of the best foods out there. They are plant foods full of vitamins and mineralswhich makes them really healthy foods for health.
They are also rich in other nutrients such as fiber and protein And, as a bonus, they have almost no fat and very few calories. This makes them optimal foods for both athletes and sedentary people.
It may be that some people can feel bad about consuming legumes, but this is usually due to poor tolerance to carbohydrates from legumes. This, in the vast majority of people, can be changed if they go introducing the legumes little by little. For example, eating salads with a little legumes, introducing small amounts of hummus as an appetizer, etc.
Our recommendation is that you consume a minimum of three times a week to get all the benefits of this food group.
Prioritize white meats over red
There is always an eternal debate if red meat or white meat is better. The truth is that everything will depend on the person, but In general, white meat is much better.
Although red meat is a good food as long as we choose appropriate options such as fresh and lower-fat alternatives, consuming more than two servings a day can lead to some dangers to health.
consume around 350 grams of red meat daily has been associated with greater risk of suffering a cardiovascular accident as well as causing an increase in the consumption of purines that, if not well metabolized or included in a healthy diet, can raise uric acid in the blood and produce, among other things, joint problems.
Reduce salt intake
The minerals that salt contains, which are chlorine and sodium, are of total importance for good health. The problem comes when there is an excessive consumption of it, increasing the chances of suffering from hypertension and, therefore, cardiovascular diseases.
Sodium, which is above all the chemical element that most influences blood pressure, is present in other foods such as fish, some dairy products and derivatives, etc., so reducing the salt we consume from the salt shaker could bring us more benefits than harm.
Avoid processed sauces
Sauces have accompanied dishes for a long time to give dishes more flavor, something that can provide many benefits at the level of palatability.
The problem comes when the sauces are not homemade, since normally those that are bought in jars have lots of salt, lots of calories and sugar, Therefore, if we want to add sauces to our dishes, it is best to make them with fresh products and with the least amount of salt so that the flavor is enhanced based on the herbs and spices that it contains.
Prioritize fresh foods over frozen or canned
There are foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes that are frozen, stored in jars, etc., to make them last longer, and this is not really bad or dangerous for health. In fact on occasion It can come in handy when you don’t feel like cooking or don’t have time for it.
Even so, many minerals and vitamins are usually lost, especially the water-soluble ones such as those of group B or C, so when consuming plant foods (preferably wholemeal), it is recommended that they be consumed the fresher the better.
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