The Top 3 Diet Tips For A Longer Life

1. Cut the White Stuff, Especially Sugary Drinks

Looking for some simple diet tips that will change the way you feel and look almost immediately? Start with this one. Nature doesn’t provide many white foods like sugar and flour, and cutting simple sugars and carbohydrates is the best place to start Eating Well. Numerous studies have shown that when we eat a 100-calorie slice of bread, our bodies reduce our hunger response and caloric intake for the rest of the day (especially if it’s whole wheat bread with fiber, vitamins, and healthy fats).  However, that same 100-calories from a soda or glass of apple juice does not reduce our hunger response. So it’s an extra 100 calories over what you would normally eat as opposed to the bread, which will count against your body’s daily set point of calories it seeks.

2. Eat Protein and Fiber at Every Meal

Most healthy diets include some protein at every meal, and it’s not always as obvious as a meat dish.  Many cuisines have paired staple grains and legumes. Typically, neither one contains all the essential amino acids, or protein building blocks, on their own, but in conjunction they do.  This is why you constantly see beans and grains combined in traditional cuisines around the world: red beans and rice, corn and pinto beans, rice and soy, wheat and lentils.  These grain and legume combinations create complete proteins without any meat. Eating protein slows the absorption of sugars and starches, which reduces blood sugar spikes and crashes that encourage binge eating.

3. Maximize Variety, Especially with Veggies

For the very best diet tips, you don’t have to look much further than The Mediterranean Diet is high in vegetables and other plant-based foods, and these occur in a wide variety.  People end up getting a lot of different phytonutrients from the plants.  In addition to the well-known nutrients like Vitamins C and D, our bodies can benefit from hundreds, maybe thousands, of plant nutrients.  Science is still discovering these and learning what roles they play in our health.  Many don’t even have names yet.  But by eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and grains, the people of the Mediterranean countries are able to benefit from having these in their diet, even without knowing what they are.  Variety staves off nutritional deficiencies and promotes good health.

Do you consider yourself to be a healthy eater? What diet tips can you share?