Diet information

People often hear the word diet and think it means a short-term period of low food intake. In reality, the best diet is one that you can stay on for the rest of your life. This means improving the quality of the food you eat, eating slightly less and still enjoying your life. Diets that are for short term weight loss should be avoided. The goal here is a long-term change in how you eat. There are a lot of different sources on how to eat healthy and most of them will work. But there are a few general rules that are quick, easy and very effective at improving your diet.

A Healthy Diet

It is important to know what is considered a good diet. When it comes to eating, variety and balance are vital. You should have 6-11 servings of grains and breads, 3-5 servings of vegetables, 2-4 servings of fruit, and 2-3 servings of dairy or meat products. Oils, fats and sweets should be eaten only occasionally. Use the food pyramid below as a guide.

But how big is a serving? For fruits and vegetables, a serving is roughly one unit. For example, one carrot is one serving. For grains, a serving is about 1 cup. For dairy, meat, oils, fats and sweets a serving is half a cup. The ultimate point is to eat a variety of foods while eating less meats, fats and sweets.

If you want to eat a particular type of diet such as the Mediterranean, vegetarian or Asian diet, the following site can be helpful: Several Healthy Diet Plans. You may also benefit from a visit to MyPyramid.gov.

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Quick Tips

1. Eat breakfast - Skipping breakfast often makes you overeat for lunch and dinner. Overeating is one of the primary problems with unhealthy diets. When your body hasn't had breakfast, it will make you feel very hungry and cause you to overeat at your next meal. Oatmeal with some brown sugar and chopped strawberries is a delicious and healthy way to start the day!
    

2. Don't eat to the point of feeling full - If you feel full, you ate too much. Many of us have grown accustomed to eating until we feel uncomfortable. That discomfort is your body telling you that you ate way too much. Try eating 75% of what would normally make you feel full, then stop. It takes time for your body to realize how much you have eaten and we often eat too fast and too much for our own good. If you still feel hungry after an hour, then try a snack like a piece of fruit. At first this will be difficult because you will feel hungry. That is because your body is used to eating too much. You need to retrain your body and after a few weeks, you won't be as hungry!
    

3. Eat smaller meals more often - Instead of 2 or 3 big meals every day, try 4 to 6 smaller meals. As mentioned earlier, eating less is the key but this often makes you feel hungry. Eating 4 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day will help with the hunger and keep your total caloric intake low. Each meal should be roughly 1/3 the size of what you have been eating before. Also, try drinking a glass of water when you first feel hungry.
    

4. Eat your fruits and veggies - A good diet consists of 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. This means 2 to 3 servings per meal. Try eating the fruits and vegetables first every time. It will ensure you get your servings in and will fill you up so you eat less of the meats and other less healthy foods.
    

5. Don't eat out more than twice per week - This may be a big change for many of you. The simple truth is that fast food and restaurant food are packed with fat and calories. You would greatly increase the healthiness of your diet by eating out less. A good rule is to eat out no more than twice per week. Try keeping a tally of how many times per week you eat out. Cutting that number in half will significantly improve your diet. Ideally, you will get down to two or fewer times per week.
    

6. Skip the cheese - Cheese is put on more and more foods. But the amount of fat in cheese is very high. Try taking cheese out of your meals, especially when it is an extra topping. You will probably be surprised to see that most of your food still tastes just as good without it. Your heart, arteries and waist line will thank you. This also goes for sour cream, cream cheese, whip cream, mayonnaise and non-skim milk.
    

7. 25% fat or less - People are often surprised to see how much fat is in their diet. Only 25-30% of your total caloric intake should be from fat. For most Americans the calories from fat make up far more than 30% of their total. Fortunately, there is an easy trick to fixing this. Whenever you are about to buy something, look at the nutritional information label. It will tell you the total calories per serving and right next to that will be the calories from fat. Anytime the calories from fat is more than 25% of the total calories, don't buy it! For example, if the total calories is 100 and the calories from fat is 55, leave it in the store. This rule alone can significantly improve your diet.
    

8. Meat is a treat - Meat is very easy to come by in America. It is cheap and it tastes good. But we are getting far too much meat in our diets and it is causing all sorts of health problems. Meat based meals should not be the daily routine. Try cutting down the amount of meat in your meals. Think of meat as a treat and eat it last. And remember not to overeat!
    

9. Eat fish - Fish meat tastes good and is healthy. It can improve your cholesterol, too! Replace the other meats you normally eat with some fish.
    

10. Don't eat because you are bored - Often times the extra calories people take in are when they snack while watching TV, working on the computer or just sitting around. These snacks are rarely healthy. If you find yourself doing this, stop. You should eat because you are hungry. If you aren't hungry, don't eat.
     

11. Don't burn out - All of these tips are great but they are worthless if you end up being miserable and quit following them. Make a few changes and wait at least a month before making more. You are eating healthy so you can live longer, healthier and happier. If these changes make you miserable, slow down and start again. Changing an unhealthy diet to a healthy diet is like quitting smoking; it often takes hard work and several tries. Keep at it.

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A Note About Losing Weight

Many of us would love to lose 10, 20, 30 pounds or more. Often times we want to lose it quickly. That is simply not realistic. Gaining weight is easy and losing it is difficult. It takes a while to gain weight and, appropriately so, it often takes even longer to lose it. The ultimate goal is more about losing fat than it is about losing weight. Following the information on this site will help you lose excess fat. But if you are looking at the scale every day and using that as a measure of your progress, you may have the wrong expectations.

Continue eating right and exercising despite what the scale says. You may even gain weight because you built some muscle. What you and others will notice is that you look leaner, stronger, less fat and have more energy, stamina and confidence. Instead of tracking your weight, track your waist line.

A helpful guide about losing weight can be found here: Aim for a Healthy Weight

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Food Frequency Questionnaire

Try out our Food Frequency Questionnaire and get a customized report on what improvements you can make in your diet! This is a useful tool because it will give you recommendations specific to your diet.

 Exercise

Although making all the diet changes listed on this site will help your overall nutrition, you still need to exercise to improve your health. Exercising only a few times per week will greatly improve the condition of your heart, make it easier to lose fat, make you stronger and give you more energy. Getting at least half an hour of moderate intensity exercise every day is ideal. However, when you are just starting, make sure to take it slow. If you have any medical conditions or are taking medications, be sure to talk to your doctor before starting.

Here is a website that will give you a good introduction to exercising: Exercise for Beginners

For many of you, jogging and other exercises may not be doable. Fortunately, even walking outside is a good way to exercise. Take a look at the following site for information on walking: Reedsport Walks

 Additional Resources

If you are interested in learning more, here is a list of some good resources.

• The New American Diet System by Drs. Sonja and William Connor. (Book)
   

• Eat More Weigh Less by Dean Ornish. (Book)
   

• Lipid Clinic News by the OHSU Lipid Disorders Clinic. (Newsletter)
  - Contains information on the latest science, new products and new recipes.
  - A $12 per year subscription. Make checks payable to Lipid Clinic News.
    3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road
    Portland, OR 97201-3098
   

• Nutrition Action Newsletter by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. (Newsletter)
  - Promotes public education on food and nutrition--product information.
  - A $24 per year subscription.
    http://cspinet.org/nah/index.htm
   

•   Tufts University Diet and Nutrition Letter by the Tufts University School of Nutrition. (Newsletter)
  - Contains information on the latest science about nutrition and health.
  - A $24 per year subscription.
    http://www.tuftshealthletter.com/Subscribe.aspx
   

• Environmental Nutrition by Environmentalnutrition.com. (Newsletter)
  - An award-winning, independent newsletter on nutrition.
    http://www.environmentalnutrition.com/
   

• Berkeley Wellness Letter by the University of California in Berkeley. (Newsletter)
  - A newsletter with brisk and reasoned coverage of health issues.
  - A $24 per year subscription.
    http://www.berkeleywellness.com/