A healthy lifestyle involves many choices. Among them, choosing a balanced diet or healthy eating plan. the latest fad diet isn’t the answer. In fact moving from one extreme diet plan to another can, over time, be harmful to your overall health.
Healthy eating is about balance. Foods that are fine in moderation may be bad for you in excess. Healthy eating also goes hand-in-hand with reasonable and regular physical activity.
Great — no more comfort foods, right?
No! Healthy eating is all about balance. You can enjoy your favorite foods even if they are high in calories, fat or added sugars. The key is eating them only once in a while and balancing them out with healthier foods. Combine this with a healthy level of physical activity and you’ve got a winning combination.
Some general tips for comfort foods:
- Consume them less often. If you normally eat these foods every day, cut back to once a week or once a month. You’ll be cutting your calories because you’re not having the food as often.
- Eat smaller amounts. If your favorite higher calorie food is a chocolate bar, have a smaller size or only half a bar. Be careful! This technique works well for some people, but others may find it is too tempting to have their favorite food available, even in smaller amounts.
- Try a lower-calorie version. Use lower-calorie ingredients or prepare it differently. For example, if your macaroni and cheese recipe uses whole milk, butter, and full-fat cheese, try remaking it with non-fat milk, less butter, light cream cheese, fresh spinach and tomatoes. Just remember to not increase your portion size.
So how do you choose a healthy eating plan?
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, a healthy eating plan:
- Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products
- Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
- Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars
- Stays within your daily calorie needs
Healthy Options Restaurants
Eastern Shore Healthy Communities Healthy Options Restaurant Work Group includes chefs, restaurant owners, dietitians, and public health professionals.
Download a list of participating restaurants here.
Healthy Restaurant Criteria
Did you know that having a meal in a restaurant often means that you will consume double the calories in one meal than you would have consumed had you stayed home? Eating out shouldn’t set you back.
These restaurants have applied for and earned the Eastern Shore Healthy Restaurants award. To earn the seal, restaurants offered recipes for at least one complete adult and one complete child meal for a thorough nutrient and calorie analysis.
Meals had to meet 8 of 11 criteria:
- contain no more than 700 calories
- be trans-fat free
- less than 30% of calories from fat
- less than 10% of calories from saturated fat
- no more than 600 mg of sodium
- at least 5 to 7 grams of dietary fiber with lean protein
- ½ to 1 cup non-starchy vegetable and/or fruit
- have available fat-free salad dressing
- have available skim or 1% milk
- provide choices of whole grain items
- no fried food.
Vending Toolkit
Vending machine displays can often mean the difference between enjoying a healthy calorie free water beverage or a calorie dense sugary soft drink, or a high calorie candy bar or nutritious bag of nuts.
If your company, faith community or organization would like to adopt a healthy vending machine policy, you may find the toolkit helpful.
Healthy Vending Tool Kit link.
