A New Way to Think About Healthy Food
When you think of ‘healthy’ food, what do you think of?
For many of us, this doesn’t exactly bring to mind a gourmet meal. Instead, you might think of healthy foods as being those typical ‘low fat’ sandwiches or crisps that have had all the moisture sucked out of them. Maybe you think of bread that is about as thin (and tasty) as a piece of cardboard!
Whatever the case though, healthy food doesn’t have to be this way. Healthy, food should be all the stuff that you want to eat. After all, this food is meant to be good for you; so it makes sense that it would be tasty and satisfying!
Where Diet Food Goes Wrong
Diet food, unfortunately, is utterly unhelpful for the most part. It is food that has had the fat removed from it, based on the incorrect belief that fat causes heart problems. We now know that fat is good for us and even slows down the absorption of sugar as well!
What’s more, fat also makes us feel fuller! And while it contains more calories, this means we need to eat less of it – and less of everything else as well.
What Healthy Food Looks Like
The first clue that healthy food should be tasty and even indulgent comes from the Mediterranean Diet. Which is an entire continent of people who are in fantastic health despite eating a diet that would technically be considered unhealthy by many ‘experts’?
People on the Mediterranean Diet live longer and have great heart health – thanks to the saturated fat content and things like resveratrol found in red wine.
At the same time though, the Mediterranean Diet includes a ton of different fruits and vegetables all arranged beautifully on the plate and displaying a ton of vivid colours. Greek salad contains tomatoes, feta, cucumber and pepper and is full of goodness!
Meanwhile, the inclusion of oil on top ensures that all those nutrients are absorbed better.
When you eat like this, you enjoy your food, and you feel full and satiated. Thus you don’t get cravings or feel the need to snack, and you also get to enjoy eating – the way you should!
It’s not just the Mediterranean Diet that offers these benefits of course. The take-home message here is indeed a straightforward one: eat a varied diet and make sure you enjoy it!
