Healthy Diet, Healthy You
Can changing my diet really improve my health?
Absolutely! What we eat day to day really does impact our health. Remember that old saying, “You are what you eat”? They came up with that for good reason.
Our bodies need a wide range of nutrients to perform all sorts of important functions like making energy, repairing damaged cells, making hormones, repairing wounds & fighting infections, detoxifying chemicals…the list goes on. When we don’t get enough of the nutrients we need to do all of these jobs, our bodies have to ‘economise’ and cut back on some of these functions. While this may be ok for short periods, over time this can lead to health symptoms.
But I already eat a healthy diet!
Sometimes what we hear in the media, or what the food manufacturers market to us, or what we learnt growing up, isn’t quite accurate. And sometimes we can misunderstand or misinterpret the information we come across. All of these reasons can lead to us missing things and making little mistakes despite our best efforts. And again, this won’t matter every now and then, but if we go our whole lives not getting enough of some important nutrients, eventually it will catch up with us.
On top of this, certain health conditions and genetic predispositions can mean we have an increased demand for some foods & nutrients – or even the exact opposite! Depending on your own unique situation you might need increase, reduce, or even avoid some foods for a period of time in order to live your healthiest life.
But where do I start?
Don’t worry if you’re feeling confused by all the information out there. Do the best with what you know and try and eat a wide variety of unprocessed foods as these types of foods generally have the highest nutrient content. Some good rules of thumb are:
Eat more vegetables! Seriously, most people don’t eat enough veggies. Try and add one extra veggie to each meal you make.
Eat lots of different types of vegetables - as many different types & colours as you can throughout the week.
Drink plenty of water. If you don’t know how much water you’re drinking, buy a re-usable drink bottle and keep track of how many times you re-fill it during the day.
Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet - and sorry, switching to artificial sweeteners isn’t the answer.
Avoid refined grain foods & replace with wholegrain options.
And if you feel like you need more personalised help you can reach out to me and I can help you put the pieces of your unique health puzzle together and work with you to make the right changes for your particular situation.
