Top 5 Healthy Eating Habits, According to a Dietitian

Including healthy eating habits in your life is a must if you want to support your overall well-being. While trendy diets and lifestyle overhauls are all the rage, the truth is that simple changes and swaps can lead to big results in the health department.

As a registered dietitian, I have some https://e-sms.id/ go-to healthy-eating tips that I lean on when people want to eat more healthfully. All of my tips are simple to do and they won’t require juice cleanses or expensive supplements to accomplish. To make implementing healthy eating habit changes more sustainable, I generally recommend that people choose two or three tips to kick-start their healthy eating journey. Once you master a few tips, you can add more.

1. Skip Drinks with Added Sugars

Added sugars are lurking in many seemingly healthy drinks, like fruit punch and sports drinks. Unfortunately, taking in too many added sugars has been linked to adverse outcomes including obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome, according to a 2019 European Journal of Paediatric Dentistry article.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that people limit their added sugar intake to less than 10% of their total calories. For a 2,000-calorie diet, that means around 12 teaspoons of the sweet stuff. Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average intake of added sugars among U.S. adults is about 17 teaspoons, far exceeding the suggested quota

2. Include Fermented Food in Your Diet

Kimchi, sauerkraut and other fermented foods not only taste delish, but they also fuel the body with live probiotics that support our overall health in various ways. To give your body a boost of probiotics, start your day with plain yogurt, enjoy a miso soup at dinnertime or sip on a kombucha midday for some fermented goodness.

3. Eat 2 to 3 Servings of Low-Mercury Non-Fried Fish Every Week

Although the Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that most Americans eat at least 8 ounces of fish every week, the majority of people are sorely missing the mark. Fish, especially oily fish like salmon, is a rich source of DHA omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, vitamin B12 and a slew of other important nutrients that support our health.

Eating fish is linked to a plethora of potential health benefits too, including a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a 2018 advisory published in Circulation.

4. Swap Out Highly Processed Meat for Fresher Options

Highly processed meats like lunch meats, bacon and sausage are certainly convenient and incredibly appetizing. But these meat choices can also be loaded with nitrates, additives that, when heated, can produce potentially cancer-causing compounds, according to a 2020 report in Antioxidants (Basel). Many of these meat choices are loaded with sodium as well.

Fresh cuts of meat like turkey, chicken and beef are lower-sodium and nitrate-free meat options that can be just as satisfying to eat.

5. Have a Glass of Milk Every Day

Milk isn’t just for kids. As a staple food that is a perfect accompaniment to chocolate chip cookies, a glass of milk is loaded with 13 essential nutrients, including bone-building calcium, protein and magnesium. Yet, as nutrient-dense as milk is, most adults don’t drink even one glass of this beverage a day.