Easy Steps to Healthy Eating

I am often asked about nutrition and what I consider to be a “healthy” diet.  So I’m sharing with you here the nuts and bolts of healthy nutrition.  It’s your job to take these nuts and bolts and use them to build healthy meals.  Remember that we want to focus on changing eating habits and to work towards establishing a Wellness Based Lifestyle!  The list of foods below is the food choices in different categories to choose from when constructing your meals and options to choose as snacks.  

In order to increase body metabolism, aim to eat 6 smaller meals a day verses 3 larger meals.  Each of your meals will ideally be close to the same size in terms of overall calories and proportions.  Space them out 2 to 3 hours from each other, but don’t go over 3 ½ hours in between meals.

1. Proteins:  Eggs (free range vegetarian fed), lean chicken breast, Wild salmon, tilapia, tuna, flounder, lean turkey breast, scallops, organic tofu, organic tempeh, and occasionally LEAN red meat (I would say no more than 2 times per week at most)
2. Starches:  Here’s where most people go overboard, so at this phase just work to become more aware of the amounts of starches that you consume on a daily basis.  Good sources include brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa (which is a complete protein as well), sweet potatoes, whole grain pasta, kamut, and occasionally white or yellow potatoes (2-3 times per week max)
3. Vegetables and Fruits:  I consider these guys to be free game, meaning really make them the focal point of your diet.  This is where we get the majority of micronutrients and antioxidants that we need for healthy living.  Veggies to consider eating often are dark green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach turnip greens, and collards.  Also choices such as broccoli, carrots, celery, radishes, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, and any others that you desire.  The brighter the colors, the better!  Fruits too are pretty much wide open in terms of which to have, but consider bananas, cherries, acai berries, gogi berries, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, mangoes, grapes, apples and oranges.  Due to the natural sugar content I try not to go overboard with fruits, but having 3 to 4 pieces of your choice per day is completely healthy and acceptable.
4. Fats:  Healthy fats should not be avoided and are absolutely necessary for healthy living.  They are needed for brain functioning and in the absorption of fat soluble vitamins.  The key is to avoid too much saturated fat and trans-fats.  Healthy sources of fats include avocados, olive oil, coconut oil (actually is a great source for the limited amount of saturated fat we need), flax seeds, chia seeds, natural peanut butter, other nut butters, nuts, seeds and a tiny bit of full-fat dairy products is okay.  When cooking, use coconut oil for high-heat preparation such as frying and olive oil is fine for less heat intensive cooking methods.  Canola is GMO, so I say avoid it.  Never use soybean oil, cottonseed or straight up vegetable oils.  Repeat after me: “YUCK.”
5. Beverages:  Aim for a gallon of water per day, with no less that ½ gallon.  Water is necessary for every single bodily function!  Limit sugar-free sodas and beverages to no more than 1 per day.  No non-diet sodas allowed!!! Both black tea and green tea are completely acceptable and encouraged.  They are clean, natural sources of caffeine and are linked to reduction in risk of both heart disease and Type-II Diabetes.  They both are great sources of antioxidants, which are nature’s little cancer fighters!  Black coffee is also fine.
6. Sweeteners:  Work very hard to eliminate most sugar and sweeteners from your diet.  At the very minimum, cut back on sweeteners and sugar drastically.  Agave nectar is a natural sweetener that has less effect on your blood sugar levels and is considered a low-glycemic sweetener.  Use it in moderation if you must sweeten foods.  My position on artificial and calorie-free sweeteners is that they are fine to use initially as you work to wean yourself from sugar.  Stevia is technically a naturally derived calorie-free sweetener and in terms of calorie-free products, I feel that it is a more healthy choice than the others out there.  The concerns around artificial sweeteners are their link to decreased healthy bacteria in the intestinal tract (gut flora) so just be aware of how much you are using.  Honey is a natural sweetener that presents many health benefits, yet it is calorically dense so use it sparingly.  NEVER use or eat products containing High Fructose Corn Syrup!!!!!!!
7. Spices and Flavor Enhancers:  Black pepper, crushed red pepper and other spicy peppers can actually increase metabolism because they contain capsaicin and therefore you should use these to spice foods if you can tolerate the heat.  Sea salt with trace minerals is a decent option to use sparingly.  Mrs. Dash makes some spices that have little to no sodium so these types of spices are fine to use.  Any herbs are completely fine to use and encouraged.  You’ll love the flavors they offer and you’ll gain the health benefits and micronutrients that they provide.

So this is the list, and again, use the foods on it to put together meals for yourself.  Stock your kitchen full of these foods and cut back on buying packaged and processed foods.  The rule of thumb is if it contains more than 7 ingredients, avoid it as much as you can.  Ideally you should cook and prepare your foods at home and if you do eat out, shoot for menu choices that have the foods above in them.  To construct meals for yourself, I suggest taking a food from the protein list, combine it with a starch and a vegetable and then throw in a small amount of healthy fat.  For me, dairy fills the place of a protein so some example meals are:

1 cup of cooked brown rice, one can of tuna in water (drained), and a handful of baby carrots.  Add a touch of light mayo and a teaspoon of olive oil to the tuna and drink a full glass of water with the meal.

½ cup of oatmeal (uncooked), a handful of blueberries, a ¼ cup of slivered almonds, a tablespoon of agave nectar, a small amount of gogi berries, a teaspoon of chia seeds and a cup of black coffee.  

1 cup of plain Greek yogurt, a handful of sliced strawberries, a tablespoon of honey, 2 tablespoons of raw sunflower seeds and a large glass of water.  

Once a week, let yourself enjoy a food you love and crave that isn’t on this list. 

In Wellness and Loe,

Dr. Chris