Ten keys for healthy eating: building good food habits

It's an odd paradox that people have so much interest in health and nutrition at a time when obesity is reaching epidemic proportions. We don't need elaborate weight loss systems if we can keep some simple steps in mind to develop eating habits for a more healthy diet.

1. Small, simple steps set you up for success in building new eating habits. Make small, incremental changes over a period of time, allowing each to become a new habit. Simplify; instead of tracking nutrients and counting calories, think in terms of freshness, variety, and especially color.

2. Eat anything you want, but moderately. Reduce the size of your portions of meat, snack foods, and desserts, and other high calorie foods. Don't give up favorites completely, or you're likely to go into mourning! Eventually you'll return to your old eating habits.

3. How you eat is as important as what you eat. Eat with others as much as possible. Avoid eating at your desk or in front of the television. Eat slowly and take the time to taste and enjoy your food.

4. Eat five servings of colorful fruits and vegetables, the brighter and deeper the color the better. Choose several different colors each day. They not only contain vital nutrients, but also a high water and fiber content to keep you feeling full longer. Prefer whole fruit and vegetables to juices and prefer fresh or frozen to canned.

5. Eat healthy carbohydrates and whole grains. Refined grains and flours, stripped of the bran and the germ, are less healthy. If you are not used to eating whole grains, introduce them gradually. For example, mix regular pasta with whole wheat pasta for a while until you begin to prefer the whole wheat.

6. Eat healthy fats and avoid unhealthy fats. Unhealthy fats include too much saturated fat (solid at room temperature, like butter or meat fat) or any amount trans fat (a man-made saturated fat from vegetable oils). Healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats come from vegetables, grains, or fish. Get in the habit of reading labels at the store.

7. Put protein into perspective and get into the habit of eating a more varied diet. Most Americans think only of meat, poultry, and dairy products as protein sources. As a result, they actually eat too much protein and along with it, too much saturated fat. Plants have incomplete proteins, but in certain combinations (beans plus whole grains, for example) provide proteins as good as those found in meat with much less fat and good carbohydrates.

8. Keep vitamins and minerals in mind. Careful attention to the other keys will take care of most nutritional needs, but Americans often have deficiencies of calcium, vitamin D, and other essential nutrients. Good eating habits will help get more of these nutrients from food and have less need for supplements.

9. Limit salt and refined sugars and grains. When a recipe calls for sugar or salt, use less. Again, look at the labels on what you buy. Some breads have much more salt than others. Low fat crackers nearly always have more salt and sugar than their regular counterparts. Prefer whole grain foods to refined grains. Even a mixture of the two is healthier than no whole grains at all.

10. Plan easy meals ahead. Get out of habits like ordering a pizza or fixing prepared foods at the last minute because you haven't decided what to fix. You and your family can be eating any number of different healthy meals within half an hour after you walk into the kitchen to prepare them. Many others can be tossed in a slow cooker in the morning and require little work at supper time. You can make casseroles and soups that will last two or more meals, requiring only reheating the second time around. Plan menus at least a week at a time and make sure you have all the ingredients on hand--including quick substitute healthy meals for emergencies.