Changing Healthy Eating from Daunting to Doable

We can find plenty of “best of” tips for healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, yet wonder how big a difference in health they’d really make; we can find plenty of summaries of the biggest news stories about healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, but feel that acting on them is more daunting than doable.

What matters now is not what headlines created the biggest “splash”, but what are priorities as we consider taking at least one step to bring us the health and vitality we value.
If you’re considering steps you’d like to take in 2014 to start or to continue a healthy lifestyle, here’s my list of ideas for making healthy eating both priority-focused and doable.

Include More Nutrient-Rich Plant Foods

Study after study in 2013 showed that supplements don’t bring the health protection we get from eating habits based on a variety of nutrient-rich plant foods. More than ever it’s time to embrace the idea that eating basic healthy foods throughout the day is key to a strong immune system, long-term health, and energy to live the life you want to live.

• Check this Smart Bytes® post, Video Interview: Researchers on Antioxidants & Eating Smart, in which world-renowned researchers Navindra Seeram, PhD, and Alan Crozier, PhD, explain what science says about protective compounds in foods, now that we are moving beyond an over-simplified understanding of antioxidants. Read on after the video interview, and you’ll find specific ideas to help you fit these principles of healthy eating into your lifestyle.
• No single food, no matter how much of a “nutrition rock star” it may be, provides what we get by regularly including a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Perhaps one step for you is to focus on a few specific nutrient-rich foods to include more often, and find new ways that you can truly enjoy them. Cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, bok choy and more are worthy of that intent. If eating more is on your target list, check this post from a series of video interviews I did with Elizabeth Jeffery, PhD: Broccoli in a Diet to Reduce Cancer Risk: Raw or Cooked?
• One of the most significant steps for many people occurs when they move beyond including more vegetables or whole grains at dinner, to making healthy choices a normal part of eating all day long. This post provides some practical ideas of how I do this – yes, even on vacation – and love it.

Moving from Weight to Body Composition

Weight loss is probably one of the most frequent resolutions people make – for New Year’s or any other time of year. If you’ve been there and done that… and regained what you lost or felt horrible because you lost nothing… how about reframing your concerns about weight?

Excess body fat, especially the kind deep within the abdomen, is linked to metabolic derangements that can lead to a host of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. “Perfection” is not necessary for health, however. Research now shows that even modest weight loss can make a difference for health. The trick is to be able to keep off the excess body fat you lose. Also, focus on loss of unhealthy body fat while minimizing loss of lean tissue like muscle, which tends to be lost gradually as we get older anyway.

• If you’re over 40, do a reality check: weight management in middle age and beyond is different than it was it was in your 20’s. It’s time to accept that, and find strategies that support a healthy weight and health. This Smart Bytes® post includes an interview with Steven Heymsfield, MD, whose career has been spent studying weight management, and discusses doable steps to put Dr. Heymsfield’s findings into practice.
• Explore changes in your eating habits, trying out options to see what you can keep as part of a new and healthier lifestyle. And remember that it’s excess fat – not water or lean muscle – that you want to lose. Healthy body composition is about more than calorie cutting as you think about the protein you eat and how it’s distributed through your day. Read on after you view the video for practical tips in Protein: Practical When’s & How’s for Healthy Eating.
• Regular physical activity is among the lifestyle choices most strongly linked to lower risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cancer, and among the top steps you can take to promote long-term health if you already have them. It’s also vital for keeping lean muscle tissue. However, if you’ve been hoping that a daily 30-minute walk is all you need to lose excess body fat, it’s probably time for another reality check. Hear what Dr. Heymsfield says about the research on this question of cutting calories consumed or burning more, and read on for help framing your strategy.
• If stress has been part of what drives your unplanned, unhealthy eating, or if you’d like to explore a variety of new ways to include physical activity in a healthy lifestyle, perhaps you are considering what yoga might have to offer you. Check these posts that include interviews with Sat Bir Khalsa, PhD: What Does Research Say about How Yoga Affects Health? and What to Expect from Starting Yoga.

Don’t Let “Daunting” Keep You from What Matters

If the big steps you’ve targeted previously when you aimed for a healthy lifestyle ended up a bust, don’t let that history keep you from a fresh start. Research is stronger than ever, for example, that For Cancer Risk, Lifestyle Can Trump Genes. Chronic diseases like Cancer, Heart Disease and Type 2 Diabetes are all connected. When you choose the right lifestyle choices as your targets, you create a ripple effect that brings multiple benefits to your health and vitality.

You may see many media stories about the top health news of 2013. In fact, the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) offers a list of Top 2013 Cancer Prevention Research Stories, compiled by people who actually have a sound basis on which to make the call on what’s “big”. When you hear about advances like these in our understanding of preventive health, don’t consider them “interesting” and then keep going in the same old way. Use these stories as your springboard to ask, “What am I ready to do?” Think about the priorities for your lifestyle, and make up your mind to create a healthy eating pattern that is doable for you.

What are some ways, large or small, that you may have stepped forward to take care of your health in 2013? What can you do to help those that worked for you further take root? What one step would you like to make your victory in 2014? Please comment below: your ideas may help and inspire others, and your future target list will shape research update topics for the year ahead. Taking Nutrition from Daunting to Doable^TM is what we’re all about here!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy New Year!