What to eat: Basic guidelines of where to start
Knowing where and how to start making changes is often the hardest thing to do. These are a few basic guidelines, and a great place to start.
What we should and should not eat:
1. Eat foods that are recognizable, like whole foods. Something your great grandparents would immediately recognize without explanation.
2. Eat more plant-based foods and fewer animal foods. Your total daily intake should be:
· 50% or more should be non-starchy vegetables
· 25% grains, starchy vegetables &/or fruit
· 25% protein and good quality fats.
My mother never considered potatoes a “vegetable”...it is a vegetable, she knows that but when filling our plates we still had to have other veggies. We couldn’t just load our plates with potatoes and argue that we’ve had our veggies for the day.
3. Eat the rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Try something new. It might surprise you!
4. When buying packaged products, make sure you know the ingredients being used. If you don’t recognize anything or can’t pronounce the names of the ingredients, leave it at the store.
5. Try to eat 40% raw foods each day and 60% cooked foods. This is a good balance for our body’s digestion and its ability to use the nutrients available. Too much raw can cause the body to be cold and slows digestion. This particularly important during the colder months of the year.
6. Try to limit the number of times you have fast foods, processed food, or eat out. The goal is to have no more than 4 meal/week that wasn’t prepared by you. By doing this and eating more fresh homemade meals, I promise you, you will feel the difference. I know this sounds like a really big ask so if you find this hard to do…don’t give up. Start by increasing the number of homemade meals you eat as many times as you can every day or week. It won’t be long before you find yourself eating primarily healthier, homemade foods.
Small morsels of changes over longer periods of time create long-lasting good habits and an easier road to improved health.
I’ve included some links below from various food experts who all have the same goals we have but with slightly different perspectives and recommendations on food and diet. They’re fundamentally saying the same thing but it will give you the flexibility to find exactly what works for you. There’s no cookie-cutter answer for everyone so keep an open mind and always be trying something new.
Guide to the Mediterranean Diet
