7 Simple Healthy Eating Guidelines

1. For healthy eating guidelines and obtaining optimal health, it's super important to start by eating a varied, healthy, balanced diet.

Eat fresh foods in their most natural state possible. 2. Strive towards making the majority of your food be fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. Vegetables can be eaten raw in a salad, steamed or lightly cooked. The more you cook or process your vegetables the less nutritional value they have. Ideally, half of your plate will be vegetables, one quarter protein and one quarter good quality  carbs.  Nothing has been made more nutritionally dense through packaging and processing. Aim to reduce packaged, processed foods and get back to the basics of eating a healthy, whole foods diet.

Healthy Eating Guidelines For Protein

3. We all need good quality sources of protein, as protein forms the building blocks of the body, muscles and bones. Organic chicken, some fish and eggs are good sources of protein, as well as beans or pulses, such as lentils, chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans and quinoa. Unfortunately dairy is not included in these healthy eating guidelines. Read more about dairy and calcium here.

I really believe that eating a plant based diet is the healthiest way to eat and for some body types it works better than others.

For 16 years I was vegetarian. It wasn't until I started taking my classes to be a naturopath that I discovered I was protein deficient, especially for my body type. I began to eat organic chicken and fish and more eggs and my energy and stamina increased immensely. 

Vegetarians can combine whole grains with beans or legumes to complete protein. Simply be mindful to get a sufficient amount of protein. There are some great apps to check your daily protein intake. You can use one of them if you're vegan or vegetarian. 

Generally, protein keeps us full, so it's essential to make sure that whatever you are eating is healthy filling and nutritious. It should keep you satisfied until your next meal. 

On the other hand too much protein is not good either. Check this chart of the protein content of foods to determine how much protein you are eating. 

Raw almonds are the healthiest kind of nuts for a protein snack, as well as trail mix. 

Healthy Eating Guidelines for the Low Down on Healthy Grains

4. Eat whole grains, which means grains that you can see with your eyes, such as brown rice, quinoa, millet, oats, etc. Carbs are not the enemy! It's a matter of replacing ordinary carbs with healthier alternatives. Use about 1/2 cup, a little goes a long way as they are so nutritionally dense. Better choices for pasta, bread or cereal are those made with spelt, kamut and brown rice.

Good fats are an important part of the healthy eating guidelines

5. Good fats are essential in healthy eating.

Good fats come from fish, such as salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies. The smaller the fish, the less contaminated it is. Nuts and seeds such as walnuts, almonds, are great. Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, etc. are powerhouses of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Avocados are also good.

Try to avoid too many bad fats in the form of processed foods, fried foods, trans-fats and saturated fats. Oils should rarely be heated. For your healthy eating guidelines the best oils are extra virgin olive oil and oils that are first cold pressed, preferably organic.

7. Foods to avoid when following healthy eating guidelines:

• White sugar or anything containing white sugar or its equivalent, such as high fructose corn syrup.

Help with sugar withdrawal

Find healthy sugar substitutes here 

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• White flour or foods made with white flour  
  
• Refined or processed foods. If it has a bar code it is not food!
• Fried foods, foods with trans-fats or bad oils such as palm oil or hydrogenated oil.
• Table salt or foods containing regular table salt. Choose sun-dried sea salt.

A little bit more info about healthy eating guidelines

In a rush? Don't know what to make for lunch? Find some great ideas here....

6 Tips To Make Eating Healthy Easy, Even When You're On The Go!

 ‘Eating a rainbow’ of foods can help your body stay in shape and heal ailments and is a huge par tof the healthy eating guidelines. Green foods detoxify, neutralize and deodorize.Yellow foods are good for tissue building and repair. each of the different colored foods work in different ways. Learn more about the each of the colors of healthy clean eating.

Find 10 tips to healthy eating on a budget here.

Need some help in getting started with eating healthy?

It may seem overwhelming to think of implementing all these things and you don't know where to start, right? 

I can help! I'm Sue-Anne, a naturopath and personalized body type weight loss specialist. For over 15 years I've been helping my clients, transform their lives by following their body type plan and dropping the pounds they want to. 

And to make it easy and affordable to learn how to do so, I created the Bodytypology Membership. Cut through all the conflicting information and join a supportive group of committed women to finally drop the pounds you want to and keep them off for good.