It’s that time of the year again. You are probably planning to start a diet and eat healthily. However, it might be difficult to directly jump into a diet. Here’s how you can start making healthy choices in your diet.

What you should know:

Tips to make healthy food choices
Healthy foods to add to your diet

Tips to make healthy food choices

Food is a source of nourishment but it is also the easiest way to comfort our body. Most comfort foods tend to be unhealthy sources of salt, sugar, and fats. Making healthy choices can help you control the cravings for unhealthy foods to comfort and nourish your body the right way

Understand your cravings

Often when you feel a craving for certain foods it is your body’s way to send you a signal that it needs certain nutrients. Here are some common cravings and what they usually mean:

Salty foods: When you crave potato chips that might be your body’s way of indicating that it is dehydrated. Make sure you are drinking enough water to keep your electrolytes in balance.
Sugary foods: A sugar craving could be a sign that your blood sugar levels are low. To combat this craving, you can eat protein-rich foods with a low glycaemic index like beans, pulses, and whole grains.
Chocolate: This indicates low magnesium levels in the body. You can fulfil this craving by eating leafy vegetables or nuts like almonds.

Avoid comfort eating

Comfort eating is when you consume food to simulate dopamine in your brain. When your dopamine level is low you should eat protein-rich foods including meats like fish and chicken, fruits like apples, berries, and oranges or nuts and seeds.

Choose quality over quantity

Improving the quality of the food you eat to satisfy your craving and eat in moderation. For example, if you have a chocolate craving you should consider dark chocolate with has a higher cocoa content and is low on sugar. Similarly, if you feel like eating chips you can consider baked chips instead of fried chips.

Make healthy replacements

When you identify the unhealthy foods in your diet it is important to define which healthy foods you can replace them with. For example, you should cut down on salty foods like chips, sauces, readymade foods, and canned meats. You can also remove sugary juices, aerated drinks, and desserts with high sugar content.

Healthy foods to add to your diet

Once you eliminate unhealthy foods from your diet, you can replace them with nutrient-dense foods. Here are a few examples:

Replace regular biscuits, pasta, and white bread with wholegrain bread, biscuits, or pasta.
Replace white rice with brown rice
Replace fried potatoes with baked potatoes or sweet potatoes
Replace fruit juices and jams with fresh fruits and fruit salads
Replace fatty meats with low-fat protein-rich foods like fish and chicken or even beans, lentils, and peas.

Before changing your diet, it might be advisable to consult a trusted doctor or nutritionist. This can be especially helpful if you have any health risks likes diabetes or asthma.

Here’s a morning to evening healthy diet plan to get you started. For more fitness or nutrition related advice, visit Activ Living.