As our culture grows more and more figure-conscious, different new diets emerge promising to be the best, but in fact, there are many dangerous diets out there today. In this article, I will talk about how to eat a healthy, balanced diet for life and avoid unhealthy diets. Here are a few tips about how you can eat a healthy diet.

A healthy diet involves not skipping breakfast

Many people do because they don’t feel they need to eat breakfast, or they just don’t feel hungry first thing in the morning. Some people even say that not eating breakfast will help you lose weight. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Research shows that people who skip breakfast are usually fatter than those who eat a well balanced breakfast. Although you might not feel hungry first thing in the morning, if you skip breakfast you will feel extra hungry come lunch time, making you more prone to overeating for your afternoon meal. In addition, skipping breakfast makes your body think that you are starving.

A healthy diet involves not fearing fatty foods

Not all kinds of fat are bad, in fact, there are some kinds of fat that are vital to our bodies like essential fatty acids. You need to consume fat from foods for your body to function correctly, however, it is important to choose the right kinds of fats.

Most animal fats and some vegetable oils are high in the kinds of fats that raise your LDL cholesterol levels; the bad cholesterol. Contrary to popular belief, eating cholesterol doesn’t necessarily raise the amount of cholesterol in your body. If you give your body the right tools, it will flush excess cholesterol from your body. These are the good fats, and they help lower the bad cholesterol in your body by raising the good cholesterol.

Good fats include those that come from seeds (including seed oils) avocado, nuts and fish fat (like from salmon).

Eat larger meals early in the day
Your metabolism slows down towards the end of the evening and is less efficient at digesting foods. This means a lot more of the energy from the food you eat will be stored as fat and your body won’t absorb as many nutrients from the meal. Many western families tend to have their biggest meal at dinner time.

When we are thinking about a healthy diet, the problem with this is your day is basically over, and your body’s need for energy isn’t as great as it was earlier in the day. This large meal, late in the day, can also make you feel tired, and who wants to feel too tired to have fun now that the workday is over?

Try eating a medium-sized meal for breakfast, a large meal for lunch, and a small meal for dinner. Better yet, try eating 4-6 small meals over the course of your day. That keeps your body fueled for the whole day without dumping a large amount of food into your stomach, which your body might have a hard time digesting.

Make eating fun and varied on your healthy diet

Avoiding simple carbohydrates and fatty foods doesn’t need to be boring. Have fun not only with the food, but with the meal. Eating with family and friends makes the meal more satisfying than eating in front of the TV or in the car on the way home from work.  Most chefs will tell you to keep it simple and I really do try and remember this while having my healthy diet.

I love a meal of freshly sliced and chopped salad vegetables (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, spring onion) lettuce leaf cups, some avocado slices or guacamole and some prepared meat (left over lamb, mince, chicken etc) and a small sprinkling of cheese. Everyone can make their own “pocket” and for those real carbohydrate addicts, the lettuce cup can be replaced with a cereal or grain based wrap.

When you eat with others you tend to eat more slowly while enjoying your meal, which gives your body time to “feel full”, which can take about 20 minutes to get the signal that you are satisfied.  If you eat fast, say while working at your desk or while in the car, you will often tend to eat too fast, as well as overeat; your stomach will get bloated and you will usually still feel hungry.

Having variety with your meal is also important.  If you find you are having the same thing over and over again, get some inspiration by watching the food channel on TV or take cooking classes in a healthy new style (i would love to learn Vietnamese cooking).  I use the Allrecipies app on my iPhone, which I find truly inspirational.  Even if i don’t follow the exact recipe, it gives me ideas that I can adjust to my own regime.

I summarise by saying I believe the most important aspects of a healthy diet include having breakfast, eating regularly throughout the day and  keeping portion sizes small and ensuring you include protein at each main meal.