N E W S M A R C H 10 L E H A V R E You Are What You Eat: Rethinking Your Nutrition CONTRIBUTED BY ELITE POOL & FITNESS MANAGEMENT, INC. You don’t have to overhaul your entire way of life to eat healthier. Many of us don’t realize that we can still enjoy the foods we love, but substitute the vast majority of them with much healthier options. Here are five nutritional goals that you can adopt into your current diet for 2017 and beyond. TIME TO GET COLORFUL If the only color on your plate is beige, that’s a red flag. Beige signifies foods such as bread, pasta, rice and perhaps the most popular side item in the United States—the potato. Sure, that loaded spud with butter, sour cream and a heap of cheese might look salivating, but if one consumes that 4-5 times a week your waistline will undoubtedly go up a few sizes. Variety and color are the keys. Resort to the color wheel: introduce greens, especially dark greens, which are packed with vitamin C onto your plate. Don’t stop there: add some red with tomatoes and orange from carrots and squash. Attempt to make half of your plate filled with fruits and vegetables. MAKING THE SWITCH FROM WHITE TO BROWN Grains are an essential part of a well-balanced diet. However, the types of grains that we are having for breakfast, lunch and dinner matters. A very simple tweak to improve your diet drastically is making the transition from refined grains, such as white bread, to whole grain items on the shelves of your supermarket such as whole wheat bread and brown rice. On your next grocery trip, make an effort to include brown rice, oatmeal, farro, quinoa and whole wheat bread on your shopping cart. PUTTING A CORK ON LIQUID CANDY Ok, let’s do some quick math. Add your breakfast glass of orange juice (210 calories, 42 grams of sugar) to your afternoon pick-me-up can of Coke (140 calories, 39 grams of sugar) plus your dinner choice of beverage, let’s say Snapple (220 calories, 54 grams of sugar). After some easy arithmetic on my calculator, that totals to 570 calories and 135 grams of sugar. Daily caloric intakes differ for men and women, and there are some variables that also affect the math, but the general range is between 1500-2200 calories. How can the drinks that we consume alone represent as much as one-fourth, or even one-third, of our daily calories? This liquid candy epidemic is omnipresent in the United States. A simple adjustment to your diet is to opt for water. Not a fan of the plainness of water? Add a lemon or lime wedge to add some flavor. SPEAKING OF WATER… Turn towards the sea…there is a reason why all of the great early civilizations, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and Egypt, settled near rivers. They all appreciated the power of the sea to provide them with extraordinary fertile land and food. Thus, these civilizations flourished and prospered thanks to their geographic location. One way to improve your diet profoundly is to have at least one seafood dish a week. Salmon and tuna are known to have the vital Omega-3 fatty acids that fight various diseases such as heart disease and cancer. In other words, seafood can be thought of as prevention rather than a cure. So, aim to add some to your plate once or twice a week to complement your current diet. EATING LEANER FOR A LEANER YOU We all need protein. It is essential for our daily 10 LEHAVRE COURIER | MARCH 2017 | WWW.QNS.COM diet. But choosing the right kind of protein is crucial to leading a healthy lifestyle. Lean protein is the best type of protein one can eat on a day to day basis. For example, foods such as chicken and turkey breast, fish, beans, and nuts are all excellent choices of lean protein. Foods such as these are lower in saturated fat, which can help lower cholesterol. Also, leaner proteins increase your metabolism, which is good news because your body will burn fat easier (even while you are sleeping). And if that isn’t enough to encourage you to add more lean protein, it also increases your fiber intake which helps reduce your risk of heart disease and colon cancer. These are some simple adjustments that are quick to make but can have a long-lasting positive impact on your overall health and well-being, so why not give them a try?
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