10 Tips To Make Meals Healthier
If you looking for a ‘best diet for life’ that you can follow on a daily basis, this article has some simple tips to get you going. The main idea is that you can introduce these dietary changes over a period of time. You don’t have to make the switch overnight! If you do, you may find it difficult to stick with the new diet and then end up back where you were before.
Begin by picking out a couple of these tips at a time and incorporate them into your day until they become routine. Then, move on to a couple more. Before long you’ll be following all 10 tips as part of your daily meal preparation. By following these tips you’ll not only be eating healthier but you’ll want to prepare healthier meals and your family and friends will benefit too.
1. Add fresh vegetables to your plate – an extra serving of veggies has many benefits including lots of vitamins and minerals.
2. Marinate meat before a barbeque – this will cut down a lot on the amount of carcinogens produced during the barbeque process.
3. Switch to whole grain foods – changing from white flour based foods to whole grain (bread, past etc.) slows down the rate of absorption by the body. This reduces the insulin ‘spike’ you get from consuming simple carbs.
4. Eat a balanced meal – make sure you include carbohydrates, protein and some fat (unsaturated as much as possible) with each meal.
5. Eat fish – fish is an excellent source of low fat protein, and it also contains essential oils needed by the body.
6. Eat plenty of salads – a fresh salad is a good accompaniment to your meat dish and is loaded with nutrients.
7. Try the light versions – always look for low fat versions of foods (milk, cheese etc.) to reduce your intake of saturated fats.
8. Avoid fast foods – hard to do in our busy schedules. But if you can cut back on the trips to the fast food outlets, you’ll be better for it.
9. Try a vegetarian day – if you can cut out meat and fish once a week you will reap the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Who knows, you might even prefer these lighter, easier to digest meals?
10. Don’t over-cook your food – especially vegetables. They should be slightly on the ‘crunchy’ side to avoid cooking off all the nutrients.