Eating and drinking tips

Focus on fruits and veggies – The high water and fiber content in many fruits and vegetables make them ideal for healthy snacking and incorporation into meals. Add veggies to your favorite main courses (made from lean meats and whole grains) to make your dish “go” further. In addition, vitamins and nutrients in fruits and vegetables can help your overall health and vitality.

Upgrade your carbohydrates – Switch from simple to complex carbohydrates. This means eating fewer products like white bread and white rice and eating more whole grains such as whole wheat bread, whole grain brown rice, millet, quinoa and barley. They give you long-term energy, and have a high-fiber content so you feel full longer.

Experiment with protein. Protein keeps you full longer than carbohydrates, but most of us in the U.S. eat more animal protein than our bodies need. In addition, animal protein often comes with high amounts of fat. Figure out how much and what type of protein is the right amount for your body.

Choose lean, high quality protein or vegetarian options like beans and nuts.
Drink more water. You can easily reduce your daily calorie intake by replacing soda, alcohol or coffee with water. Thirst can also be confused with hunger, so by drinking water, you may avoid consuming extra calories, plus it will help you break down food more easily.

Take a multivitamin. This will help you be sure that there are no nutrient gaps in your diet. But remember that it does not substitute for eating a healthy well balanced diet.

Soda: The Secret Diet Sabotager
Soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet, providing about 7 percent of calories. One can of soda pop contains between 10-12 teaspoons of sugar and around 150 calories, so a few soft drinks can quickly add up to a good portion of your daily calorie intake.

Cutting out soft drinks may be an easy way to help you lose some extra weight. Try switching to water with lemon, unsweetened iced tea, or an occasional spritzer made with a touch of juice (juice contains a lot of calories, so use just a taste) and carbonated water.

Lifestyle tips
Get plenty of exercise – Exercise is a dieter’s best friend! It not only burns calories, but can actually improve your resting metabolism. No time for a long workout? Research shows that three 10-minute spurts of exercise per day are just as good as one 30-minute workout. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or park in the back of the parking lot. Every bit helps. See Exercise Guide for Exercise Haters.

Get proper sleep – Get proper sleep. People with improper sleep have a much higher risk of obesity. Exhaustion can make you feel hungrier, and impair your judgment. Aim for around 8 hours of good sleep a night. See Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep.

sleep

Turn off the TV – You actually burn less calories watching television than you do sleeping! If you simply can’t miss your favorite shows, get a little workout in while watching – do easy exercises like squats, sit-ups, jogging in place, or using resistance bands or hand weights.

Cook your own meals – Cooking meals at home allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sodium, fat, and calories than food cooked at home, plus the portions sizes tend to be larger.

Make sure to shop when you are not hungry. Create a shopping list to stick to, and store tempting foods in cabinets or drawers out of your sight.

Eat early, eat often. Starting your day with a healthy breakfast can jumpstart your metabolism. And will help to keep you from binging later in the day. Likewise, “grazing” on healthful snacks like fruits, veggies and protein-packed almonds, and eating 6 small, healthful meals throughout the day, rather than the standard 3 large ones, can help keep your metabolism going and ward off snack attacks.

Eating less red and processed meats reduces cancer risks.
A 10 year study of over 500,000 people age 50 – 71 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP showed a substantially higher risk (ranging from 20% to 60%) for certain types of cancers (esophageal, colorectal, liver and lung) among those people with a diet higher in red and processed meats as compared to people who ate less red and processed meats.
Red meat includes beef, veal, pork, and lamb.

Processed meats include hot dogs, bologna, bacon, sausage, packaged ham, packaged sandwich meats, pepperoni, salami and virtually all red meat used in frozen prepared meals.

The study ends with: “A decrease in the consumption of red and processed meat could reduce the incidence of cancer at multiple sites.”

by:  NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study

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