Make healthier food choices right now
PART of growing up is abandoning those childish ideas — like not eating vegetables, eating only macaroni and cheese 24/7, thinking you need to add sugar to everything you cook for taste, and feeling like wholewheat products are not your thing. In fact, eating healthy is something you MUST do for your health, weight and well-being, and it all starts with making healthier food choices.
“A healthy diet will provide loads of benefits,” says nutritionist Keisha Black. “It can help prevent many, many health conditions, and it can also give you more energy, help you focus, and improve your mood. It also has the added benefits of helping you lose those pounds fast.”
She explained: “Ever wondered why when you don’t eat right you feel sluggish and lacking in energy? The wrong foods will wear your body down, make you tired, and make it practically impossible for you to lose weight or stay at a healthy weight.”
Here are her suggestions for making healthier choices, starting today.
Add colour
Add a variety of healthy foods slowly to your diet, complemented by fruits and vegetables of various colours. “The colours will make you more inspired to eat,” Black says. “For example, quinoa by itself will taste bitter, but if you use chicken broth instead of water to cook it, that helps. You can also add sweet ingredients to the dish, like sweet peppers, pineapples (in a stir fry), basil leaves, sweet corn and tomatoes.”
Black said when you add colour to foods that are usually bland looking, it opens up a whole new variety to your cooking, and loads you up with vitamins and minerals.
“So consider adding veggies and fruits to everything, and watch your meals transform,” she said.
Introduce whole grains
Whole grains should be replacing your whites — you can start small by replacing your white bread with multi-grain bread, and even mixing your white flour with wholewheat, if you can’t make the big plunge to just wheat just yet.
“Change out your sweet breakfast cereals to those that are oat or grain based, and if you find that you can’t stomach that taste, add fruit like bananas or dried fruits and nuts like walnuts, almonds, raisins or cranberries,” Black said.
Up your good proteins
Include a variety of protein foods in your diet — not just the poultry or pork, but seafood such as fish and salmon. Also, sometimes you can replace meat protein with legumes (beans and peas), as well as soy products, for variety, Black says.
“As Jamaicans we often get stuck in one mode — beef, pork or chicken but there are so many options open as far as proteins are concerned,” Black said.
Low fat is the way forward
Replace your whole milk with low fat milk, almond milk or soy milk. Also, try low-fat cheese and other dairy products.
