How to Eat Better Food
It should come as no surprise to most readers that food plays an important role in weight loss or weight gain, but some people may not know that food can affect your risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and bad cholesterol levels. Food affects the risks of getting these diseases because certain foods cause inflammation in the body and create stress on the inner workings of the body (this is a little generalized, as there are a lot of different complex reactions that happen). Those complex reactions can start with everything from food sensitivities and intolerances, insulin resistance to excess calorie consumption or undernourishment. Most of the United States population believes in the “everything in moderation” way of thinking when it comes to nutrition, but if you want to do more than just survive and have the best level of health that you can, it starts with eating better food. This article will help you to define what better food is and how to make it a regular practice for better health and thriving instead of surviving.
Better food is food that has vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, fiber, and beneficial compounds that help keep disease away. The foods that we know that contribute to disease generally are high in calories, and low in total nutrition because they lack either fiber or any significant vitamin or mineral. These foods are also notoriously easy to overconsume and make it very difficult for us to have a single serving (which is perfectly fine). Some examples of foods that don’t contribute to good health are soda and diet soda, potato chips, deep-fried foods, pastries, pizza, cookies, fruit juice, candy, and alcohol to some extent. There are alternatives to these foods and these “Lesser” foods should be treated that we have periodically but since most of them are convenient, a lot of us consume more of them than we should. I don’t like the terms “healthy” or “unhealthy” when it comes to food, because all food serves a purpose that can be beneficial for us, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. I will use the terms “Lesser Food” and “Better Food” based solely on their nutritional characteristics (vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, fiber, calorie density).
The better food alternatives to these food items are:
How to get these in can be easy if you ask yourself when grocery shopping for foods; “Is this Better Food?” The type of foods and the quality of the foods you have at your disposal may not always be the best, but the question is not “is this the best food?”, it is “is this better food?” Better in terms of the food items listed above and/or better than you have done previously. Instead of your normal 12 pack of diet coke, you can opt for a 12 pack of canned seltzer water, popular brands are La Croix and Dasani Sparkling. Instead of a bag of potato chips, you can get a bag of baby carrots, sugar snap peas, celery sticks, or a bag of oranges. You can follow this same strategy every time you are in the grocery store or every time you eat out. Have a great day and remember to eat better food for optimal health.
