The secret of a nutritious diet is to give up highly processed products and replace them with unprocessed products or products with the least degree of processing. What should proper nutrition be like? What products to choose and what to eat? You will find the answers to these questions among the 10 principles of healthy eating.
How to eat healthy? Base on vegetables and fruits
When you hear “healthy food”, do you first think of vegetables and fruits? This is good, because they are a source of vitamins and minerals. It is worth reaching for multi-colored vegetables and fruits, because their color often determines the nutritional value. Green vegetables are rich in folic acid, calcium and iron. Red, yellow and orange – this is a wealth of carotenoids. The daily menu should include both vegetables and fruits, but there should be much more of the former. How to eat healthy all year round? It is worth reaching for native, seasonal fruit and vegetables, and in winter, when their access is much smaller, reach for the frozen version. Freezing is a safe way to store food that does not affect the nutritional value very much.
Variety of meals is the key to proper nutrition
Diversifying your diet is the main principle of healthy eating and a way to make it easier to stick to your dietary resolutions. What to eat to be healthy and diverse? Choose products from different groups. Take care of your daily menu, let it include: vegetables, fruits, wholegrain cereal products, products that are a source of protein, i.e. (dairy products, meat, fish, eggs, legumes) and vegetable fats. The more diverse your plate is, the lower the risk of nutritional deficiencies and dietary boredom.
Reach for healthy products, i.e. low-processed food
It is important not only to diversify meals, but also to be able to choose valuable products. Healthy food is as little processed as possible, preferably prepared at home. Eliminate fast food, salty snacks and other highly processed products from your diet. How to recognize them? After the long list of ingredients on the label, which include large amounts of fat and sugar, as well as preservatives, dyes, artificial flavors and flavor enhancers.
Highly processed food does not bring any value to the diet, on the contrary: it is a source of the so-called empty calories, which means that it provides a lot of energy, but few vitamins and minerals. If you don’t have time to prepare meals yourself, use the help of SuperMenu dietary catering. Choose, for example, one of the diets from the Pure Fit line. You will be sure that your plate contains only healthy, low-processed food.
Healthy meals should not only be tasty and filling, but also composed in such a way as to meet nutritional needs, in particular the demand for protein. The best sources of wholesome protein are animal products: eggs, meat, especially poultry, and fish. Remember, however, that a healthy diet should include good plant sources of protein, such as legumes and high-protein groats, such as quinoa or amaranth. This is important, especially in a vegetarian diet.
Do you want to eat healthy? Don’t be afraid of fat!
Healthy eating is about maintaining a balance between individual ingredients. A proper diet is not about eliminating fat, but about reaching for its appropriate types and sources. Fat plays a very important role in the diet, it is necessary for the proper functioning of the body, m.in.: the absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K depends on it, participates in the synthesis of hormones, improves the condition of the skin.
When taking care of healthy eating, reach for properly selected sources of fat, primarily of plant origin, but not only. Use oils such as unrefined rapeseed, linseed and olive oil mainly cold, for example as an addition to salads. For frying and baking, choose clarified butter and coconut oil, as they have a high smoke point.
Choose boiling and baking instead of frying
How to eat healthy? Not only the content of the plate is crucial, but also the way you prepare meals. It is worth limiting frying in favor of cooking, stewing and baking. Steaming food is particularly beneficial because there is little loss of vitamins and mineral salts. You can also prepare healthy food by boiling it in water or under pressure and by baking it in a casserole dish. If you decide to fry, choose a high-quality frying pan, allowing you to prepare food without fat or with the addition of a small amount of fat. Remember that even very healthy products can lose their nutritional value and become difficult to digest if you prepare them by frying them in a large amount of fat.
Take care of your diet and health – avoid sugar and sweets
Unfortunately, the principles of proper nutrition cannot do without prohibitions. White sugar and most store-bought sweets should be completely eliminated from a healthy diet. However, there is no situation without a solution. You can prepare healthy sweets yourself. You will find a lot of interesting recipes on the Internet. You don’t have to deny yourself a cake, but instead of a cake from the store, treat yourself to homemade baking without added sugar. Use erythritol, coconut sugar, honey, stevia or xylitol for sweetening. Proper nutrition doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. At SuperMenu, you can order a sugar-free diet (from the Pure line) if you want to eliminate it from your diet.
When we want to eat healthy, it is good to limit salt intake. Its excess in the diet disrupts the water and electrolyte balance and increases the risk of hypertension. Do you want to eat healthy? Give up salting dishes abundantly and using ready-made salted mixtures. Natural spices, such as herbs (thyme, lovage, tarragon, oregano, marjoram), dried paprika, pepper, turmeric, improve the taste and aroma of dishes. Excess salt in the diet is unhealthy for a number of reasons, including water retention. Not surprisingly, healthy eating principles also include a sensible and reduced use of salt.
How to start eating healthy? The first step may be to hydrate the body. It needs at least 1.5 liters of fluids a day, and if you are an active person – more. It is best to quench thirst with low-sodium still mineral water. Coffee, tea (especially green and white), herbal infusions without added sugar, freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices – these are also healthy drinks, but it is water that hydrates the body best. Give up sugary drinks.