The Best Advice – What to Eat in 2023

It’s Hard to Know What to Eat – There’s So Much Confusing (and Contradictory) Advice!

If you’re confused about what to eat in 2023, you’re not alone.

So many dieticians, clinicians, doctors, gurus and some of your family members and friends all have plenty of advice. There are Keto, Mediterranean, DASH and countless other diets – and people who follow them normally lose weight and then put it all back on (and more) shortly afterwards.

The food industry spends billions of dollars every year, telling us that whatever they sell is great.

Diet books are sometimes totally wrong.

The media love sensational headlines that tell us that the results of one small study are an undeniable truth.

How do you know who’s right?

You probably know this already, but just think about these numbers. They’re really quite startling.

When people eat healthy food, maintain a healthy weight, exercise and don’t smoke, they avoid 80% of heart attacks, 90% of type 2 diabetes and reduce their chance of dementia and some forms of cancer.

Just imagine a world where FEW people have heart attacks or type 2 diabetes. Lots of energy. Not squeezing uncomfortably into a seat. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?

Every day we’re bombarded by images of junk food, instant meals and yummy goods.

Often, it’s cheaper to buy junk than to buy ‘real’ (unprocessed) food. And of course, it saves you cooking.

So, it’s not your fault that you don’t know what to eat.

Keep It Simple

In this confusing world of advice, bad advice and glamorous advertisements for bad food, here are 2 sage pieces of advice.

1 Don’t diet. All diets work if you stick to them. But if you stick to a diet, you’ll probably feel deprived. And that means – when you’ve lost some weight, you’ll enjoy eating all the ‘bad’ stuff that you haven’t been able to eat for ages. And so the weight will return. And all of your hard work and self-sacrifice will have been for nothing.

(Soul-destroying, isn’t it?).

Next. Here it is.

My best advice for this year.

2 Eat 90% healthy food. (Perhaps 80% when you start). Then enjoy – really enjoy – the bad stuff, in moderation.

In other words, make sure most of your food is fresh, healthy whole foods, and then enjoy the non-healthy stuff in small quantities.

What’s healthy food? See my list below.

And take the time to learn how to cook filling, nutritional meals. They’ll keep you feeling full, so you won’t be tempted to snack on bad food.

Plus, you’ll no longer get those horrible ‘crashes’ when your body craves junk.

Planning

Let’s talk a bit more about eating mostly healthy food.

• When you’re on a diet, you follow it. Someone else has worked out for you, what you should eat. You don’t have to plan.
• If you get ready-made food delivered to you all the time (e.g. pizza), you don’t need to plan either, you just order what you want, when you want it.

But when you want to eat mostly healthy food, you need to plan it. You must decide what you’re going to eat, shop for or order the ingredients, and then cook.

Be warned. This might not be easy if you’re not used to planning meals.

If you’re not used to planning and cooking food, see “Box Deliveries” below.

What is Healthy Food?

“Eat 90% healthy food” is a very general rule. Why? Because everyone’s different. Some people like avocado. Some don’t. Some people react badly to bananas. Some delight in them.

To keep it VERY simple, eat

• Lots of fruits and vegetables, raw or lightly cooked. Berries are really good for you.
• If you make smoothies (which are a great way to get lots more fresh food in a yummy way!), make sure they always contain more veggies than fruit – otherwise they won’t be healthy.
• Choose fish, poultry, lentils, beans, eggs and nuts, and only a little red meat occasionally.
• Drink water. Bottled water is often less tested than tap water so use a filter if you need to, but drink tap not bottled water and save yourself a fortune. Tea and herbal teas are also good. Coffee is great in the mornings, but not with cream and additives. Alcohol is OK in moderation – but the healthy limit is probably less than you’d like.

Avoid these –

• Avoid junk food, convenience food, ready meals. Anything that’s heavily processed is bad.
• Processed meats (bacon, sausage, deli meats, ham, salami, pate etc) are also bad.
• Know that many plant-based foods are heavily processed and almost as bad for you as junk food. So eating a plant-based diet is NOT healthy if you’re still eating processed junk!

Eat This Instead of That –

• Eat whole grain bread instead of white bread.
• Eat brown rice instead of white rice or potatoes.
• Use olive oil instead of butter or margarine.
• Use peanut butter instead of cheese or bologna or salami for a sandwich.
• Put nuts on a salad instead of cheese.
• Snack on nuts instead of sweets.
• Make dessert plain full-fat yogurt with fresh fruit and nuts instead of ice cream.
• Low-fat or fat free dairy is heavily processed and full of nasties – instead eat a smaller amount of full fat real yogurt with live cultures, and other full fat dairy in moderation.

Box Deliveries May Be a Good Alternative (At Least to Start With)

Box deliveries are a useful option if you’re not used to planning your home-cooked meals. They’re also good if you don’t have time to shop for ingredients. And they’re a great way to taste foods you might not have tried before.

But don’t buy box deliveries when the food is already made – mostly, it’s processed, unhealthy but convenient food.

What you want is box deliveries where fresh ingredients for a whole meal are all included. You cook from scratch yourself, but all the ingredients, in the right portion sizes, are included, together with clear instructions.

But do your research.

• They’re quite expensive – but they save you shopping and planning your meals. Everything’s there in the box in the right quantities with clear instructions.
• Make sure you’re happy with the recipe choices, the cancellation policies, and the delivery times.
• Some services include fresh meals that you cook from scratch, but also ‘ready meals’ as well i.e. prepared. You need to know how processed they are – processed foods are unhealthy.
• Some services are better for young families, some offer organic or vegetarian options, some offer adventurous cuisine …….. decide what you like.

After you’ve tried something for a while, you have recipes for meals you really enjoy. You’ll know how to cook them, and what ingredients you need. So you might not need the expense of the delivered box after a while any more.

But you’ll still be eating good, healthy meals.

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Warm regards,

P.S.  Don’t forget to download your FREE recipes for yummy smoothies that will keep you feeling full!  Click here.