I’m guessing you’re interested in how to eat healthy if you’ve landed on this post. When it comes to eating healthy there is so much conflicting advice out there in the world. It’s kind of overwhelming and seems to change over time. For the most part, eating fruits and veggies has been considered healthy by most people over the years.
What could be wrong with eating foods that are grown from the earth and aren’t processed with chemicals and overly refined, taking away the good parts (vitamins and minerals)? The vitamins and minerals in these whole foods are essential to our well being and health. They help with every function in our bodies.
Why We Don’t Get As Hungry When We Eat Healthy
Carbs
Did you know that fruits and vegetables are carbs and our body needs carbs for energy? They’re the best source of carbs because they tend to have pretty low calories compared to what most people think of as carbs (rice, breads, cereals, crackers, etc.) and they help keep us fuller for longer because of the fiber they contain. This is not true of juices, even if you juice them yourselves. You have to eat the whole fruit to get the most benefits.
There are so many different kinds of fruits and veggies to pick from and most of them taste pretty good. Different fruits and vegetables vary in the vitamins and minerals that they contain. The color of them indicates which vitamins and minerals they provide to you. So, your best bet is to eat a variety of different colors when choosing your fruits and vegetables for the week. In other words, eat the rainbow (and I don’t mean Skittles). I highly recommend avoiding Skittles. They are basically just little pieces of sugar and food coloring, which is the opposite of doing something beneficial for your body.
Protein
We can’t get everything we need from fruits and veggies alone though. Protein is essential in our diet to maintain health. It will keep you full longer than carbs, but has the same calories per gram. Therefore, you’ll be less likely to feel like you need to eat more or more often. Protein is less easily processed by your body too. This means that you’ll burn more calories just digesting protein than either carbs or fat.
You can get lean protein in skinless white meat chicken breasts, nuts, eggs, beans, lentils, tofu, cottage cheese, white fleshed fish, and and lean beef.
Fats
Fat usually gets a bad wrap, but consuming fat doesn’t make you fat. You actually need fat to stay healthy. Your body uses it for energy. Some vitamins and minerals can’t be absorbed by your body without it. And fat is required to build cell membranes. It is also essential for blood clotting and muscle movement. So, obviously you can’t be healthy without fat in your diet. The key is choosing healthy fats over the less healthy fats, like saturated and trans fats.
Healthy Eating Reduces Overeating
One of the best things about eating healthy, adding lots of fruits, veggies, proteins, and healthy fats to your daily meals, is that you end up feeling fuller longer with less calories. Then you don’t have room for all the other less lower quality foods you might have eaten because you were feeling hungry and unsatisfied. Highly processed foods tend to be high in calories, but low in nutritional value and therefore leave us feeling unsatisfied and hungry again quickly. Therefore, causing us to overeat.
It might even be fun to try some from the list above that you haven’t had before. It’s important to show your kids that you’re willing to try new foods too. It might even encourage those picky eaters to expand their list of foods they’ll eat. You could even make it a challenge to see how many different varieties of fruits and vegetables you can eat in a week. Maybe, whoever eats the most variety gets to pick a fun family activity at the end of the week or gets to help plan and cook a new recipe on the weekend (or whenever it’s next convenient with your busy schedule).
I would love to hear about the new things you have tried in your journey to eat healthy, if and how your kids responded, and even any favorite recipes that have fruits and veggies in them. Let me know in the comments below!
