How to Eat Well

We’ve been doing it for thousands of years and we live in the most abundant era of human knowledge – and calories! – ever, yet we still can’t seem to agree on what constitutes healthy eating. People are more confused than ever. How has it all gone so wrong? Low fat, low carb, high protein, south beach, Atkins, African mango and more recently keto. There seems to be a new ‘scientifically’ proven, celebratory supported diet ever season. We don’t need any more diets and we don’t need any information on healthy eating. We do need clarity on how to eat well and most of it is common sense. Let’s look at your new look healthy eating menu. The good news it’s all simple to digest, easily prepared and deliciously successful.

The entre

Let’s start with the most simplistic and sensible advice on how to eat well before considering even adding a serve of broccoli or making any meal changes.Cut out the crap

The absolute first step to clean up your eating habits is to cut out discretionary calories. These are calories we just don’t need, a fancy term for the ‘crap’ – crisps, chocolate, muffins, biscuits, chips etc. All the naughty stuff you love but your waistline doesn’t and you just don’t need. They are loaded with calories and lacking in nutrients. Did you realise the average serving of crisps, muffin or chocolate bar contains between 20-30% of your daily calorie intake!!! So if you have four or more of these per week, you have added in an extra days-worth of calories per week, extend that over one year…. and we wonder why we can’t lose weight?

Eat less

Imagine not making a single change to the way you eat except to eat less. No dieting, no missing your favorite foods, you simply cut back on the serving size – revolutionary! Most of us eat too much. We put too much on our plate and we eat the lot. So here’s a radical concept, put less on the plate to begin with! We tend to eat what’s in front of us. There is a real psychological barrier to going back for seconds. Switch from a plate to a bowl. You will serve more on a plate than you will in a bowl.

Drink less calories

Liquid calories are the easiest to over consume because they provide no satiety and they are easily absorbed. Water has zero calories – naturally. Imagine if you switched all of the drinks you consumed to calorie free water. Think about all of the calories you would cut out by doing this!

Now I am not suggesting you do that because you want to enjoy the odd coffee and glass or red or beer, fair enough. However, start to consider switching as many beverages as you can to water. We all know the average can of soft drink has twelve tea spoons of sugar, well I hope you did, but you may not be so aware on fruit juices. Pound for pound, a bottle of orange juice has as much sugar as coke! It may be slightly healthier because it’s fruit based but it still has a huge amount of sugar. So the solution is diet drinks, right? Not a big fan. There is plenty of reports on the dubious effects on health of artificial sweeteners. Personally I avoid them. And then there is our good old friend alcohol. If you are serious about losing weight – CUT OUT ALCOHOL. Don’t come complaining to me you can’t lose weight until you have taken this step. No further discussion.

Masticate longer

I beg your pardon! It’s a fast paced world and we often don’t take the time to stop, sit quietly and eat our food slowly and consciously. We eat on the run, we eat fast and we don’t chew for long enough. Do you know how many times you are supposed to chew before swallowing? Well it’s probably quite a lot. A little humor there. It actually depends on the type of food you are eating. Tougher foods like red meat need more chewing than mash potato (what carbs you cry – we will get to that soon). We need to chew our food until is a paste as opposed to ‘one, two down the hatch’. When it comes to weight loss and calorie intake, the theory is simple you will eat less if you chew for longer and it will aid proper digestion too.

The main

Let’s now consider the main course of how to eat well.

Eat food not food products

The fundamental fact of eating well is to eat fresh food from nature not from factories: Eat real food and less processed. Michael Pollan sums it perfectly in his book ‘FOOD RULES’ – If it comes from a plant eat it, if it was made in a plant leave it. Real, natural, whole food has zero to minimal processing by man. It has come straight from the field or ocean to your plate. Processed foods have been manipulated by man for a longer shelf life’s and greater diversity of ‘food products’ to sell as opposed to increasing their nutritional value for our benefit. They are higher in all the stuff we don’t need like sugar, salt and chemical additives and lower in the stuff we do need like fibre and nutrients. You will eat less when you eat real, natural whole foods compared with eating processed food. So how do you understand how processed a food is?

Read food labels

If you look at a food label you probably head straight to the fat content. Poor old fat has got a bad wrap since the misinformation of the 1980’s and the low fat. These day’s you don’t have to be a ‘fat-phobe’. Sure it’s high in calories, just keep a healthy eye on it, you don’t need to ostracise it completely. Any way I’m getting off point. Reading food labels is a great way to understand food quality and how processed a food is. Let me give you an example. If you purchase a bag of oats, the food label ingredient list will simply list ‘oats’. Let’s compare that to Special ‘K’. This cereal will have a much longer list of ingredients. The reason being is because it is more processed than the oats and has had stuff added to improve either the taste or nutritional value. A basic rule, the longer the list, the more unpronounceable the constitutes and the more e-numbers there are – the more processed the food and the less healthy the food is likely to be. Another example. Strawberries do not come with a food label but strawberry flavouring is made up of dozens of chemicals. Real foods don’t have long lists of chemical additives. Processed foods do.

Eat regularly

Our hectic lives means we often eat erratically: sometimes missing meals, sometimes over eating or eating meals at different times of the day. The most important thing is quality of food and total calories in, however, how and when we eat will effect this. For example, if you miss a meal there is a high probability you will either over eat at the next meal or need to snack on some naughty ‘discretionary’ calories. Eating regularly helps to keep blood sugar levels stable and this helps prevent cravings and overeating. Try to eat all your meals at similar times each day with approximately 4-5 hours between each, meaning you will need a healthy afternoon snack around 3pm. A regular eating routine is important to eat well. Eating erratically will increase the odds of overeating and cravings.

Eat balanced meals

Any eating regime that promotes eliminating a food group (ie, protein, fats or carbs) is not going to work long term. Sure you will lose weight but will you keep it off? Eating well requires you to eat a mixture of protein, fats and carbohydrates in every meal. A balanced meal helps to regulate your appetite and this stops you over eating and prevents food cravings. Take for example the humble breakfast. This is typically carbohydrate rich. Cereal with fruit, toast with jam washed down with fruit juice. To balance out breakfast, to keep you satisfied longer, you need to include protein and fat by adding some yoghurt or almond meal to cereals or switch to eggs on toast, a powerhouse of a breakfast.

The dessert

You really don’t need a dessert after dinner and you don’t need these either…

Don’t go on a diet

Haven’t you figured it out yet, diet’s don’t work. Sure you might lose some weight but will you keep it off long term, that is the real trick. 80% of people who lose weight on a diet will gain it back and then some! Diets force you to make unsustainable changes to your eating habits that often result in you blowing out or giving up. You DO NOT need to go on a diet you DO need to make sensible changes to your eating habits such as the ones suggested in this article.

Don’t cut out a food group

Diet’s often involve cutting out a food group. Let’s get it straight, your body needs carbohydrates for energy, in fact your brain operates purely from sugar, fats for cell function, endocrine function, body warmth and protection and protein for the building blocks of your body. You cannot sustain eliminating one whole food group. It just won’t work. Instead simply reduce the higher energy food groups like fats and carbs, don’t ditch them altogether.

And a little wafer thin mint to finish

Beyond food choices there are two very significant factors that will seriously affect your appetite and how much you eat.

Alcohol

Now we know we should cut back on alcohol because of the calories but there’s more to it than that. Alcohol effects our appetite and eating habits and food choices. It’s not so much about getting the nibbles when you drink, it’s more the effect it has the day after. The day after drinking alcohol, particularly if you got drunk will have a much greater appetite than normal and you will crave higher calorie foods. The reason is because alcohol causes the release of galanin which stimulates not only the appetite but the desire for higher calorie, fatty foods. Alcohol also reduces are usual self-control and we are more inclined to give into cravings and desires. Plus you are less likely to workout the day after a big night out! So a double whammy for the waistline of eating more and moving less!

Sleep

If you don’t get enough sleep you will eat more the next day. Poor quality or lack of sleep stimulates the appetite and also the desire for higher calorie food choices. So if you want to lose weight get to bed on time and take steps to improve your sleep habits.

The secret ingredient

Let me ask you a question. What are you going to eat for dinner tonight? Do you know? What about tomorrow night or tomorrow lunchtime? If you have an answer for all three well done! The secret ingredient and the key to healthy eating success is planning and preparation. You can only eat what’s in your cupboard or fridge. If there is nothing healthy available you will most likely order take away or eat out which is invariably less healthy than what you prepare yourself.

If you want to eat well, you must do two things:

1. Plan a weekly menu and go grocery shopping.

2. Prepare meals in advance.

Not having enough time is the killer of healthy habits whether it is exercise or eating well. You can improve your eating habits by preparing food in advance. Cook a batch up on the weekend to have on hand in the fridge or freezer during the week. Prepare your breakfasts and lunches one or two days in advance or at least know what you are going to eat for the week ahead. The saying ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ is very true when it comes to eating well.

Conclusion

If you want to eat well: Eat real food and avoid processed foods. Cut out the discretionary calories. Eat balanced meals regularly. Keep the serving sizes down. Plan ahead and go shopping to have healthy food to prepare delicious healthy meals. Drink plenty of water for health, vitality and to help with your appetite. Enjoy other drinks in moderation. And do treat yourself now and then, just not every day.

Now how hard is that?