Healthy Eating - How Small Diet Changes Can Improve Your Health

According to a number of dietitians and nutritionists, making small changes to your diet, as well as your lifestyle, can do a great deal towards improving your weight and cholesterol levels, and also enhances you overall well being. A healthy eating plan generally involves making those small but significant changes to what you eat, and how you eat. Here's why how small diet changes can have positive effects on your health.






Switch To Healthy Fats


A few decades back, whenever we were told to cut back on dietary fat, many of us sadly went extreme, and actually gave up on good nutrition as well. A healthy diet includes the consumption of healthy fats and oils, which are derived from fish, legumes and nuts. Low-fat diets can also help to increase the body's level of HLD, or good cholesterol. Good sources of healthy cholesterol include fatty fish, which is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, and they are good for the heart.





Lessen Your Serving Size


If you're the kind who loves super-sizing your food, since switching to up-sized drinks fries and burgers at the fast food joint only costs a few bucks, you may be loading your system with a lot of artery-clogging fats. Make sure that you check your food item’s health labels, because each extra calorie will add on to those pounds of unwanted fat that are stored in your body. A recent report by the American Journal of Public Health notes that obesity rates have soared up because serving portions and sizes have grown too. The best thing to do is to decrease your usual serving portions of food by a quarter or a third. Instead of serving the usual hamburger-sized bun, give yourself sandwiches on dinner rolls, and make it a habit to order child-size portions each time.






Increase Your Intake Of Fruits and Veggies


In 1999, the US National Cancer Institute, in tandem with the Produce For Better Health Foundation, began a five-day program to encourage people to eat five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables each day, to reduce the risks of developing certain cancers. Today, more public and private health programs advocate increased vegetable and fruit consumption among the public. Five to nine servings of vegetables and fruits per day, according to the NCI, helps reduce a person’s risk of developing certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and even macular degeneration. Serve yourself at least one serving of fruits and veggies every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, stock-up on dried or canned light fruits, and buy fruits in bulk, whenever they're in season.




If you slowly educate yourself the basics of good nutrition, and you also start making healthy lifestyle and food choices, you'll certainly be able to see positive changes in your body, as well as in your general outlook. You'll feel better about yourself, and you’ll have a better attitude towards family, friends and work. You'll also have a lot of energy left at the end of the day to do the things you want.