The general principles
A healthy diet should be able to meet your nutritional needs. That means it will supply what you need and not include undesirables such as excess saturated fat, sugar and additives. A healthy diet has plants at the centre and is largely whole foods that have not undergone processing that can reduce nutrient and fibre content. Here are the main points.
- Your food needs to taste good
- The food you eat should be nutritious – fresh, varied, and where possible, in its whole form
- You shouldn’t have to spend hours preparing your meals
- Healthy and delicious food does not have to be very expensive
- The healthy eating approach should include food that the whole household can eat; that is, it shouldn’t be fad-food, obscure hard-to-get and even harder-to-eat food
- Ideally, meals can be made in larger amounts so you can have leftovers for lunch or put in the freezer for when you have little or no time to cook
About the practice
- Enjoy your food and your company!
- Chew you food and eat mindfully.
- The Goldilocks Principle: eat how much you need. Not less and not more.
- Learn to be aware of your body’s needs (see “What hunger is that?” And “Hunger on a Richter scale”)
- Get organised: plan your week, cook ahead, pack your lunches, buy what you need for the week
- Cook at home; fewer take away and restaurant meals usually means healthier food. Learn to prepare and cook so as to avoid damaging or losing excessive nutrients from excess heat, over-cooking or prolonged exposure to air or light. Some fruit and vegetables are best raw, but for legumes, grains and animal products cooking is essential; grilling, steaming, baking, stir-frying are healthier choices than boiling or deep-frying (and your taste buds will also thank you)
- Make and take you lunch most or all days
- Try a new recipe each week; get one from the internet, drag out your cookbooks and magazines, search a blog.
- Consider having 1 or 2 calorie-restricted days. On these days you might have a cooked breakfast and dinner and vegetable or miso soup at lunch, or breakfast and lunch and a cup of miso in the evening. This approach appears to help with weight loss but also reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, dementia and maybe cancer
- Wash your fruit and vegetables with mild soapy water or a little white vinegar in water. Do this even with organic food; the idea is to remove pesticides, herbicides, excess fertilizer and whatever ever the other people who have handled the food have left on it
- Buy locally, it will be fresher, supports the local grower’s and reduces the impact on the environment of long distance transportation
- Buy seasonally, the food will be at its best for taste and nutrient value
- Aim to exercise everyday and if you end up skipping a few you will still be at an impressive 4-5 days a week
