6 Best Habits for Healthy Eating

Top habits to help you maintain and increase your health

Establishing healthy habits is vitally important to your health. Creating good habits especially when they are oriented towards our goals can greatly increase your effectiveness. They can make or break your lifestyle goals such as sticking to a diet plan, exercising regularly, losing weight, increasing quality of life and promoting longevity. In this post we will cover a few important habits that you can implement into your life immediately. They will help you to improve your digestion, lose weight, and increase your health and wellness.

Photo by: Trang Doan

#1 - Slow Down

Studies have established that t​he pace at which you eat influence

s how much you eat and can even affect how likely you are to gain weight. Several studies comparing different eating speeds show that those who eat fast are much more likely to eat more and have a higher body mass index than slow eaters. (1,2,3)

There are several hormones such as ghrelin and leptin that control your appetite. They affect how much you eat, how full you get, and signal to the brain whether you’re hungry or full. HERE IS THE CATCH, it takes around 20 minutes for your brain to receive these messages. Eating more slowly can give your brain the time that it needs to perceive that you’re full. This can significantly reduce the number of calories you consume at meals and help you lose weight (4)

Eating slowly is also linked to more thorough chewing, which has also been linked to improved weight control. So, simply eating slower and chewing more often may help you eat less. (5)

#2 - Omega 3 and Vitamin D Supplements

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that’s vitally important for bone health and the healthy functioning of your immune system. The CDC reported that vitamin D deficiency in one of the top nutrition deficiencies among people who live in the U.S. Vitamin D can be found found in very few foods, however fatty seafood usually contains the highest amounts. (6,7)

"Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that we must get from our diets because our bodies cannot make them." – Joel Fuhrman M.D.

Another important nutrient found in fatty seafood are Omega-3 fatty acids. These have many important roles in the body, including reducing inflammation, maintaining heart health, and promoting proper brain function (8).

Generally, the American diet is very high in omega-6 fatty acids, which increase inflammation and have been linked to many chronic diseases . Omega-3s help fight this inflammation and keep your body in a more balanced state (9,10).

If you don’t eat fatty seafood regularly, you should consider taking a supplement. These supplements can be found easily on amazon.com, often at a lower price then in-store. We have listed a few of the best quality brands and supplements that we recommend below.

OMEGA - 3 Supplements:

1. Amazon Elements

2. Solgar

3. SR Vegan

#3 - EAT, Don't Drink Your Calories

This healthy habit goes for everything from sodas to alcohol and juices. Many beverages often lack healthy fats and fiber that keep hunger pangs at bay and satisfy hunger hormones. The American Journal of Cli

nical Nutrition found when participants ended up drinking more (and thus consumed a greater number of calories) until they felt satisfied, compared to when they ate solid food. (11)

This does not however mean that you should throughout all your healthy smoothie ideas. The same jurnal found that thick smoothies made people feel fuller than a thin drink with the same amount of calories—by adding in a generous scoop of Greek yogurt and a sprinkling of crunchy nuts to your protein shakes in the mornings.

There are a number of factors

at play when it comes to satiety, but eating the majority of your calories rather than drinking them will help to keep you more satisfied throughout the day and help you achieve your health and fitness goals.

#4 - Set yourself up for success

No matter what your nutrition and health goals are, reducing sugar intake, losing weight, eating more veggies, ect. You have to set yourself up for success. Make your goals easier by illuminating the things that will cause you to fail or distract you from your goals.

Keeping healthy snacks on hand at all times makes it hard to fail. Cut up veggies and store them in the fridge to dip into hummus, keep fruit in a bowl on a counter near your keys, and stock up on an assortment of nuts. Clear your pantry of any unhealthy snacks or sugary foods. By taking away the temptations it will be much easier to focus on your goals.

#5 - Are You Really Hungry?

Ask yourself if you are really hungry. Just because it's free or it's right in front of you or even because you're bored, doesn't mean you should eat it. A really important habit to establish is to ask yourself, "Am I actually hungry?" whenever you see food that's tempting you.

Inappropriately responding to thirst is actually a big contributor to people eating when they are not hungry. Physiology & Behavior found that 60 percent of the time people misinterpreted thirst for hunger. An easy way of testing yourself is to throw back a cup of water when you're feeling hungry and seeing if your hunger pangs persist. (12)

Photo by: Nathan Cowley

#6 Limit Zero Calorie Beverages

I apologize in advance to diet-soda lovers. Replacing your desire for sweet treats by substituting it with zero-calorie sweeteners does not actually help your weight loss journey.

The journal Cell Metabolism found that mice could no longer properly connect sweetness to energy density after chronic consumption of artificial sweeteners. In human terms, your body associates the sweetness of sugar with energy, but artificial sweeteners taste sweet without offering energy to the body. When your body doesn't get the energy it was expecting it will search for it elsewhere, in more calories. (13)

The University of Sydney researchers also found that artificial sweeteners promoted hyperactivity, insomnia, and decreased sleep quality. Not to mention, other studies have shown that artificial sweeteners can decrease your gut's ability to fend off weight-inducing inflammation.

The Bottom Line

These are a few habits that you can begin to implement into your life in order to improve your health and quality of life. Try just staring with one habit and sticking with it for a few weeks before adding in the next one. Habits are best implemented into your life one at a time. We wish you the best of luck in your health journey and hope that this information was of use to you!