You eat healthily step by step. Choose healthy food as much as possible and try to avoid less healthy products. If possible, replace them with a healthier alternative.
Useful Tips in eating healthier foods and drinks
Vegetables and fruit
Fruit and vegetables are part of a healthy diet, especially because of the vitamins and fiber. The Nutrition Center recommends eating 250 grams of vegetables and 2 servings (200 grams) of fruit per day.
Tips:
- Have fruit or vegetables as a snack. Cherry tomatoes or carrots are easy snacks!
- Try making a salad for lunch.
- Cover your bread with extra lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber or radish slices.
Opt for whole grain
Fiber is good for your digestion. If you want to eat more fiber, choose brown bread or whole meal bread. And take whole meal pasta, brown rice, whole meal couscous or quinoa. White rice, white bread and white pasta contain much less fiber.
Dairy
Take dairy daily. For example milk, cottage cheese, yogurt or cheese. If possible, opt for low-fat products. So semi-skimmed or skimmed milk, and cheese with less fat. Yogurt drinks usually contain sugar: try to avoid it.
Soft or liquid fats
Choose soft and liquid fats as much as possible. Replace butter and other ‘hard’ fats with liquid shortening or vegetable oil. Take olive oil or sunflower oil, for example. It contains unsaturated fats. Opting for unsaturated fat reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Check the packaging to see which fats are in a product.
Drink enough
Try to drink at least 1.5 liters of fluids per day. Preferably choose drinks without extra calories: water, coffee and tea. Black and green tea are best – these drinks lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke. The Nutrition Center advises everyone to drink 3 cups of green or black tea a day.
Coffee brewed with a filter is healthier than coffee brewed with a French press or Turkish coffee.
Eating legumes
Eat legumes once every week. Take brown beans, lentils or chickpeas for example.
Eating nuts
Take a small handful of nuts daily. Nuts contain many good fats, vitamins and minerals. Preferably choose unsalted nuts, otherwise you will soon get a lot of salt. It doesn’t matter much whether the nuts are roasted or not.
Eat fish
The Nutrition Center recommends eating fish once every week. Preferably fatty fish such as mackerel, herring, sardines or salmon.
Eat less meat
Eating meat every day is not necessary. The Nutrition Center advises not to eat more than 500 grams per week. Also be careful with processed meat, for example sausage, cold cuts and other smoked, salted, dried or seasoned meat. Eating 50 grams of processed meat per day increases the risk of colon cancer.
Less sugar
Reduce the use of sugar in your food and drinks. You can also use less and less sugar gradually, then you can get used to it slowly.
Less salt
Try to avoid products with a lot of salt added. Check the label to see how much salt (sodium) it contains. When cooking, you can also make sure that you add as little salt as possible. You can read more about it in tips for cooking .
Little to no alcohol
The Nutrition Center recommends not drinking alcohol, or at least not more than one glass per day.
Tips for changing eating habits
Do you want to eat healthier? Then you should consider a solutions for wellness. It is important to slowly make your eating habits healthier. You should make use of these useful tips.