Healthy eating patterns are a globally accepted lifestyle that is, most times, very difficult to achieve without extra effort and guidance. Healthy eating promotes optimal health, growth, and intellectual development in adults, as well as in children. Health problems, such as iron deficiency anemia, obesity, eating disorders, and dental caries, are likely to occur due to lack of a balanced diet. It may prevent long-term health problems, such as coronary heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
Health promotion aims to help people establish an active lifestyle and healthy eating habits early in life and maintain these behaviors throughout their lives.
Healthy Foods and Weight Loss
When it comes to the type of food you can eat for weight loss, there is no ‘one size fits all’ formula that automatically works for everyone, because our body responds differently to food. What works for one person towards healthy weight loss may not work for you, because there are various factors responsible for these differences, including genetics and health factors. So, instead of getting frustrated over your numerous tries, or giving up on losing weight, remember it is a gradual process, with specific steps in mind. Please do not compare your body and how a diet worked for somebody else with how it worked for you. You may even find it very challenging, sticking to a type of diet. But remember that the journey that leads to complete weight loss is not comfortable. It comes with it, steps to building a healthy relationship with food, emotional strategies to curb unhealthy appetites and overeating, and a desire to commit to a diet that is right for you and more natural to stick with for a longer time.
Four Effective Weight Loss Strategies
- Cut calories
- Cut Carbohydrates
- Cut Fats
- Follow planned Mediterranean Diets.
CDC also presents a three-fold strategy to a healthy eating life for weight loss:
Dieting Pitfalls to Avoid
When you experience obsessive or emotional eating habits, you will usually find it hard to achieve your weight loss goals unless you recognize the presence of these emotional eating triggers, and how they could impact your weight loss efforts in many ways . If you eat when you are:
- Stressed – find healthier ways to calm yourself. Try taking a walk, meditation, or soaking in a hot bath.
- Low on energy – Find other ways to spur yourself up. Try listening to fun music or taking a short nap.
- Lonely or bored – reach out to others instead of reaching for the refrigerator. Call a friend who makes you laugh, take your dog for a walk, or go to the library, mall, or park—anywhere there are people.
3Rs
- REFLECT on all your specific eating habits, both bad and good; and, your common triggers for unhealthy eating.
- REPLACE your unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones.
- REINFORCE your new, healthier eating habits.
Healthy Lifestyle Choices
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020, emphasizes that a healthy eating plan must include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and milk products that are either fat-free or low in fat. It must also include eggs, fish, poultry, and lean meats, but must contain little or no saturated and trans fats, sodium, added sugars, and cholesterol. The plan must also stay within the necessary daily calories.
How To Make Your Kid Eat Healthy Food
FOR INFANTS
Breast milk is acknowledged as a complete source of nutrition for infants and offers many benefits for mothers and babies. Do not introduce solids to babies before they are four months old.
Give breast milk as the first fluid to infants under the age of 12 months. Give cows’ milk only to infants over one-year-old.
Provide foods and snacks that are appropriate to the
child’s age and stage – try not to use too many sweet or salty foods as snacks or at meals.
FOR CHILDREN
School-based nutrition education can improve dietary practices that affect young persons’ health, growth, and intellectual development.
We encourage children to eat at least three servings of vegetables and at least two servings of fruit per day.
We also advice that children and adolescents should eat breakfast at home before school or at school before classes begin.
Guidelines for Healthy Eating
To prevent certain diseases and to promote good health, persons older than two years of age should follow the seven recommendations that constitute the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Provide foods and snacks that are appropriate to the
child’s age and stage – try not to use too many sweet or salty foods as snacks or at meals.
The six relevant dietary guidelines are:
- (a) eat a variety of foods.
- (b) balance the food you eat with physical activity to maintain or improve your weight.
- (c) choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits.
- (d) choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.
- (e) choose a diet moderate in sugars, and
- (f) choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium.
(The seventh recommendation concerns adults and alcoholic beverages.)
When Fast Food Is Your Only Option
Fast Food
The name ‘fast food’ has always been identified as ‘unhealthy’ food, especially concerning obesity and weight loss. Although fast food is mostly available, affordable, attractive, and hard to resist, the unhealthy amount of sugar, sodium, saturated and trans fats, simple carbs, and calories compared to the minimal amount of minerals and vitamins, makes them very unhealthy.
However, we can be smart about our fast foods because we always have a choice to make towards a healthy weight. According to health news, there are some healthy alternatives you may consider ordering that include less than 500 calories, more than 15 grams of protein to keep you full, and less saturated fat and cholesterol. Examples are the
- Chipotle — Chicken Burrito Bowl with brown rice and pinto beans, no cheese or sour cream (500 calories)
- Starbucks — Spinach, Feta, and Cage-Free Egg-White Breakfast Wrap (290 calories)
- Subway’s Turkey Breast sandwich with nine-grain wheat bread contains 250 calories and 3 grams (g) of fat, including 0.5 g of saturated fat.
- Taco Bell’s Bean Burrito is a vegetarian option that contains 380 calories, 11 g of fat, including 4 g of saturated fat.
- Mc Donald’s the Fillet-O-Fish contains 390 calories and 4 g of saturated fat out of 19 g of total fat. The Bacon Ranch Grilled Chicken Salad contains only 320 calories and 6 g of saturated fat out of a total of 14 g.
Meals To-Go
According to the CDC, to go meals can consist of any of the following:
- “Grab-and-go” fruits: apples, oranges, bananas, canned fruit without added sugars, and raisins
- Washed and chopped fresh vegetables: celery, carrots, and cucumbers
- Whole-grain crackers and slices of bread
- Protein choices such as low-fat deli turkey slices or almonds and other nuts and seeds.
- Low-fat and fat-free milk products: yogurt without added sugars, milk, and low-fat cheeses
Improving the New You
- Keep a food log and follow a healthy and realistic eating pattern
- Cook your meals at home.
- Keep your eating patterns consistent.
- Serve yourself smaller portions.
- Fast for 14 hours a day by taking early dinner.
- Eat breakfast every day.
- Drink more water.
- Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.
- Eat more fiber and less unhealthy fat
- Get daily physical activity.
- Monitor your diet and activity
- Reduce the number of tempting foods you have at home.
- Monitor your weight by regularly checking the scale.
- Get support from family, friends, and others.
Get more help
DR. MUSTAFA ALIBHAI
Nova Bariatrics and Minimally Invasive Surgery
6750 N. MacArthur Blvd
Ste 209
Irving, Texas 75039
469-639-0953
9509 N Beach Street
Ste 102
Fort Worth, TX 76244
469-639-0953