4 healthy eating tips to try this year, according to experts
Olivia Perl and Ayesha Muttucumaru
Wellness
Reading time: 4 minutes
Overcome nutrition overwhelm with these bitesize food and lifestyle tips
If you find the world of nutrition and healthy eating a little daunting at times, you’re not alone. With a plethora of information and dietary advice available and the challenge of juggling work and home life, it may have felt like too big of a beast to tackle. We can relate.
The good news is that once broken down, things can seem a lot less intimidating. In fact, introducing just one small change to our routine can be all it takes to see improvements in our health and wellbeing.
From adding more fibre to our diet to foods that help lift our mood, we ask a range of wellness experts to share their top bitesize tips for elevating our nutritional wellbeing this year.
Scroll on for the tiny healthy eating tweaks that could help yield big results.
1. Eat more fibre
Vicky Pennington, Boots nutritionist
“If you’re tired of hearing about foods to cut down on, then focus on fibre instead because it’s something we need more of. The daily fibre recommendation for adults is 30g, but more than 90% of UK adults fail to hit this amount.
“You’ll only find fibre in plant-based foods and it’s essential for good health, so increasing the amount of wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, legumes (beans and pulses), nuts and seeds you consume each day is a great way to achieve a healthier diet.”
2. Eat more good mood food
Dr Tosin Ajayi-Sotubo, doctor and GP
“Although many of us know that eating a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water is good for our physical health, the importance of a healthy and balanced diet for good mental health is often less talked about.
“For example, it’s important to eat the right types of fats to support our physical and mental wellbeing. While it’s best to try to cut down on foods that are high in saturated and trans fats as part of a healthy diet, our brain needs fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 to keep it working well. The key takeaway? What we eat not only impacts our physical health, but has the potential to affect how we feel, too.”
3. Eat well to sleep well
Dr Karan Rajan, NHS surgeon
“Did you know that food is closely linked to our sleep? It can take an average of 90 minutes for 50% of our stomach contents to empty into the small intestine and around four hours for it to be digested completely.
“If we eat very large meals just before going to bed, there’s a good chance we’ll still be digesting the food during the night, which can cause discomfort and disturb sleep. For a better night’s rest, we need to make sure there’s a gap of at least 90 minutes, if not more (aim for two to three hours), between our last meal of the day and our bedtime.”
4. Add, don’t restrict
Rhiannon Lambert, registered nutritionist, The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Science of Nutrition and host of the Food For Thought podcast
“Far too often in my clinic, we see people cutting out the foods they enjoy because they believe it will make them healthier. However, when we restrict foods we like, we’re more likely to overeat them. This can sadly sometimes kickstart a pattern of binge eating and feelings of guilt or failure.
“Instead, as part of a healthy, balanced diet that still includes the foods you enjoy in moderation, try to always think about what you can add into your diet rather than remove. Whether it’s including an extra source of healthy fat, such as avocado or olive oil to a meal, or ‘eating the rainbow’ through a variety of colourful fruit and vegetables, there are so many foods and food groups to add to help optimise our food choices and overall health.”
