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The busier you are, the harder it is to find time to take
care of yourself. So here are 25 easy healthy eating tips. Follow these easy
tips and you'll get seven servings of fruits and veggies, all the calcium you
need, plenty of fiber and omega-3 fats, tons of healing antioxidants, and more.
You’ll improve your chances of fending off cancer, stroke, heart attack, and
diabetes; have more energy; stay slimmer; keep your mind sharp; and sidestep
urinary-tract infections.
Healthy eating tips: 6 a.m.
1. Drink orange juice with added calcium. If you start the
day with orange juice, don't miss the chance to get calcium, too. This superstar
mineral fends off PMS, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis and it might even
help you lose weight! Most calcium fortified orange and grapefruit juices have
as much calcium as milk or more!
2. Take a multivitamin. When you take a daily
multivitamin/mineral supplement you have dramatic reductions in the risk of
colon cancer and heart disease. Another benefit is the folic acid in your
multivitamin is almost two times more absorbable than the form of this vitamin
found in food.
3. Eat cereal with at least 7 grams of fiber per serving,
because eating cereal is your easiest chance to get lots of fiber in a small
package. Fiber is a cancer fighter, and can actually cancel out some of the
calories you eat! For example, if you eat 30 grams of fiber a day, slightly more
than double what most of people get, your body will absorb 120 fewer calories a
day. That adds up to a 13-pound loss in a year!
4. Toss some blueberries on that cereal. Blueberries are
youth berries. Even frozen blueberries are packed with antioxidants that just a
1/2 cup can double the antioxidant power of most people's diets, something that
experts suspect will slow down your aging clock. Blueberries have actually been
found to reverse memory loss in one study!
5. Make your coffee with milk. If you make instant coffee
with hot water, all you're getting is a wake-up call. Use milk, and you've got
cafe au lait, along with insurance against osteoporosis from the calcium and
vitamin D in the milk.
6. Drink a glass of water when you brush your teeth. You've
got the water and the glass right there. So drink! Only one-third of the
population gets the recommended eight glasses of water daily. Think a little
shortfall doesn't matter? Signs of mild dehydration include fatigue upon
awakening, fatigue at midday, lack of concentration, and headaches.
Healthy eating tips: 8 a.m.
7. Take an apple to work. Put one on your desk in the
morning, and an apple becomes see-food, the handiest snack to grab when the
munchies hit. If it's not there, you'll be hunting for sticky buns or whatever
else is around. In addition to apples being a low-cal snack, a recent study
revealed that the lungs of apple-a-day eaters may have better protection against
air pollution.
8. Stash nuts in your desk, because nuts are rich in
healthy monounsaturated fats, vitamin E, magnesium, and phytochemicals. People
who snack on a small handful of nuts four or five times a week tend to live
longer. Just don't overdo it: One ounce of peanuts (approximately 1/8 cup)
contains about 170 calories and 14 grams of fat.
Healthy eating tips: 11:30 a.m.
9. Buy better bread. If you eat white bread, you're eating
vitamin-fortified starch. Whole-wheat bread has fiber, important nutrients such
as selenium and copper, and lots of other healthy ingredients. Maybe that's why
whole-grain eaters seem to have less diabetes, breast cancer, and heart disease.
Just don't be fooled by a dark color: Unless the first ingredient includes the
word "whole," it isn't whole-wheat bread.
10. Choose canola salad dressing. Look for a dressing made
with canola oil, rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). One study found that if you
got more than 1 gram of ALA per day the study group had half the number of fatal
heart attacks.
11. Be picky about decaf tea. Regular tea delivers healing
antioxidants but some decaf teas don't. If the decaf method isn't listed on the
package, assume they used ethyl acetate, which dramatically lowers antioxidant
levels. Look for tea that says it's been decaffeinated with water and carbon
dioxide (sometimes called "natural" or "effervescence") which preserves
antioxidants.
12. Pick up whole-wheat pasta. Do you need more help
getting to your 30 or so grams of daily fiber? Try doing this: Substitute 1 cup
of whole-wheat pasta (6.3 grams of fiber) for the same amount of regular (2.4
grams). This one easy switch pushes you 4 grams closer to your total daily fiber
goal.
13. Find ice cream that builds bones. Find a brand with 15
percent of the Daily Value (DV) for calcium in a 1/2-cup serving. That means
when you eat a cup of ice cream, you'll get 30 percent of the DV for calcium as
much as a glass of milk. Same tip applies to frozen yogurt.
Healthy Eating Tips: 12:30 PM:
14. Order Pizza the "Double-Half" Way. When you order, ask
for double tomato sauce and half cheese. Double sauce? Many studies link higher
consumption of cooked tomato products with reduced risk of prostate and other
cancers. Half cheese? You'll cut down on artery clogging saturated fat.
Healthy eating tips: 4 p.m.
15. Shrimp are low in fat and calories, but they taste so
rich that you can really satisfy yourself without gaining weight! (Twelve large
non breaded shrimp contain just 65 calories and less than 1 grams of fat!)
Healthy eating tips: 8 p.m.
16. Order dessert first. Ask your waiter if they have
berries for dessert, then order them as an appetizer. Low-cal raspberries,
strawberries, and blackberries are rich in fiber, antioxidants, and ellagic
acid, a compound that's being studied as a colon cancer fighter. Since
restaurants get the very best berries, don't pass up this super food!
17. Order half your entrée as take-out. One restaurant
portion can usually feed two and who needs all those calories? So when you order
an entree, ask them to automatically put half of it directly into a take-home
box. That way, it'll never show up on your plate! Staying slim helps lower your
risk of cancer, diabetes, stroke, and many other illnesses. And you'll have a
ready made meal for tomorrow!
18. Reach for the sparkling water. Staying well hydrated
helps fight urinary tract infections by keeping your urine diluted.
19. Dip your carrots. Are you snacking only on carrot
sticks? Make sure you eat them with some fat a dab of dip or a cube of cheese.
Without any fat, you absorb very little of carrot's cancer-fighting carotenoids.
20. Salmon is one of the richest and possibly most
delicious sources of omega-3 fats. By boosting your intake of omega-3s, you may
help ward off depression, severe menstrual cramps, macular degeneration (a cause
of blindness), fatal heart attacks, and possibly even breast cancer. (A 3-ounce
serving of cooked salmon has 1.9 grams of omega-3s; in comparison, 3 ounces of
cooked chicken breast has a mere 0.05 grams.)
21. Side with the veggies. It's easy to leave a restaurant
without touching any vegetables except French fries unless you routinely order a
side dish of broccoli, spinach, or whatever they've got that sounds good. The
antioxidants in veggies including vitamins E and C prevent the free radical
damage that promotes cancer, cataracts, and memory loss. Antioxidants can also
bolster immunity, fending off things such as the flu.
22. Finish with tea. Tea has more antioxidants than most
veggies. People who drink 4 cups of green tea a day seem to get less cancer,
perhaps due to a powerful antioxidant called EGCG. Black tea contains quercetin,
a compound that helps prevent blood clots the immediate triggers of most heart
attacks.
Healthy eating tips: 11:00 p.m
23. Have a cup of hot cocoa. Love chocolate, but still want
to be healthy? Good news! Cocoa (chocolate with much of the fat removed)
actually has even more antioxidant power than tea! The flavonoids in cocoa can
keep blood platelets from clotting, which may prevent heart attacks. Plus, the
milk in hot cocoa loves your bones! (An average cup of cocoa has less than
one-tenth the caffeine of instant coffee. But if you're very caffeine sensitive,
bedtime isn't the best time for any caffeine.)
24. Not drinking cocoa? Pop a calcium supplement. Most
women get less than one half of the calcium they need for strong bones, so if
you're not drinking cocoa, bedtime is a great time to take a calcium supplement.
(If your tummy is empty, calcium citrate supplements are absorbed best.)
25. Drink
another big glass of water after you brush your teeth.
I know you want to get in
shape and look great. Whatever
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flatten your tummy…I’m here to help you accomplish your goals and
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