7 bad food habits to break in 2016
A new year gives you the opportunity to start afresh, and this includes with your diet. Nutritionist Donovan Grant says unhealthy eating, though sometimes very difficult to curb, should be reconsidered because it is very taxing on the body. As such, you should include eating healthy as part of your New Year’s resolutions.
Here are seven bad food habits to break for 2016.
1. Skipping meals
You may think that skipping important meals such as breakfast or dinner is the perfect diet strategy, but you could be doing your body more harm than good. Every meal is necessary to provide the body with essential nutrients to enable its functions. Skipping meals could cause the body to enter defence mode against starving, slow the metabolic rate, and burn less fat, all of which you don’t really want. What you should do instead is to monitor your intake in terms of the quantity and the types of food that you eat and aim for a balanced diet.
2. Eating late at night
Eating late at night, particularly heavy foods, could force the body to overwork. The body is designed to sleep at night so you could develop sleeping disorders because the stomach is still working while your brain is trying to rest. You could also overeat, especially when you wait too long before meals.
3. Eating when you’re not hungry
Many people snack because the foods are in plain sight and as such irresistible. We sometimes can’t get ourselves to ignore the urge to gobble the extra lasagne sitting on the table, but this is a poor habit that must be changed. Also, eating when you are not hungry usually means bingeing on unhealthy foods.
4. Not planning meals ahead of time
When we fail to plan meals we end up making all types of dietary compromises. We fail to grocery shop for important nutritional food items necessary to ensure that our meals are balanced, or to get the necessary substitutes. This forces us to use whatever we have which often means very unhealthy carbohydrates and fat-filled meals.
5. Eating for comfort or when you feel bored
Many of us, to escape our boredom or seek comfort, tend to go for foods that are usually high in sugar such as chocolate, ice cream and chips. But everytime you become bored or depressed, your body pays the debt. Find a hobby if you’re bored and manage your time better so this happens less frequently. Also, write, talk to a friend, invest in something that you love doing, and if you must eat, go for healthy snacks.
6. Replacing juices or water with soda
Water is necessary to achieve balance in the body. It is also integral for the emission of toxins from our bodies so that the kidneys are working efficiently. Replacing it with soda, which is high in sugar and calories, does the body — and the skin — more harm than good.
7. Having sweet and starchy snacks between meals
So you had a balanced diet for breakfast and you ensured that you tried to maintain this throughout the day, but you just can’t seem to ignore ordering a serving of wedges with mayonnaise or grabbing two snickers at the canteen. You also choose to justify this by patting yourself on the back for how healthy you are eating and consider this habit as part of your reward system. But this is not reward, it is simply destroying all progress in the healthy eating department.
