By Frank Kamuntu
To eat healthier, start by making small changes. Make each meal or snack contain nutrient-dense foods, and try to avoid processed foods.
Depending on whom you ask, “healthy eating” may take many forms. It seems that everyone, including healthcare professionals, wellness influencers, coworkers, and family members, has an opinion on the healthiest way to eat.
Plus, nutrition articles that you read online can be downright confusing with their contradictory — and often unfounded — suggestions and rules.
This doesn’t make it easy if you simply want to eat in a healthy way that works for you.
The truth is, healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s entirely possible to nourish your body while enjoying the foods you love.
After all, food is meant to be enjoyed — not feared, counted, weighed, and tracked.
This article cuts through the noise to explain what healthy eating means and how to make it work for you.
Why does eating healthy matter?
Before we dive into what healthy eating means, it’s important to explain why it matters.
First, food is what fuels you and delivers the calories and nutrients your body needs to function. If your diet is deficient in calories or one or more nutrients, your health may suffer.
Likewise, if you eat too many calories, you may experience weight gain. People with obesity have a significantly increased risk of illnesses like type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, and heart, liver, and kidney disease.
Additionally, the quality of your diet affects your disease risk, longevity, and mental health.
While diets rich in ultra-processed foods are linked to increased mortality and a greater risk of conditions like cancer and heart disease, diets comprising mostly whole, nutrient-dense foods are associated with increased longevity and disease protection.
Diets rich in highly processed foods may also increase the risk of depressive symptoms, particularly among people who get less exercise .
What’s more, if your current diet is high in ultra-processed foods and beverages like fast food, soda, and sugary cereals but low in whole foods like vegetables, nuts, and fish, you’re likely not eating enough of certain nutrients, which may negatively affect your overall health.
Although certain people need — or choose — to avoid particular foods or adopt diets for health reasons, most people don’t have to follow any specific diet to feel their best.
That’s not to say that certain eating patterns can’t benefit you.
For instance, some people feel healthiest when following a low carb diet, while others thrive on high carb diets.
In general, though, eating healthy has nothing to do with adhering to diets or certain dietary rules. “Healthy eating” simply means prioritizing your wellness by fueling your body with nutritious foods.
The specifics may be different for each person depending on their location, financial situation, culture and society, and taste preferences.
The basics of healthy eating
Now that you know why healthy eating is important, let’s cover some nutrition basics.
Nutrient density
When you conceptualize healthy eating, your first thought might be about calories. Even though calories are important, your primary concern should be nutrients.
That’s because nutrients, including protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, and minerals, are what your body needs to thrive. “Nutrient density” refers to the amount of nutrients in a food in relation to the calories it provides.
All foods contain calories, but not all foods are nutrient-dense.
For example, a candy bar or a box of mac and cheese may be incredibly high in calories but lack vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber. Similarly, foods marketed as “diet-friendly” or “low calorie” may be very low in calories but lack nutrients.
For example, egg whites are much lower in calories and fat than whole eggs. However, an egg white provides 1% or less of the Daily Value (DV) for iron, phosphorus, zinc, choline, and vitamins A and B12, while a whole egg packs 5–21% of the DV for these nutrients.
That’s because of the nutritious, high fat yolk that eggs contain.
Plus, although some nutrient-dense foods, such as numerous fruits and veggies, are low in calories, many — like nuts, full fat yogurt, egg yolks, avocado, and fatty fish — are high in calories. That’s perfectly OK!
Just because a food is high in calories doesn’t mean that it’s bad for you. On the same token, just because a food is low in calories doesn’t make it a healthy choice.
If your food choices are based solely on calories, you’re missing the point of healthy eating.
As a general rule, try to mostly eat foods that are high in nutrients like protein, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. These foods include veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, fatty fish, and eggs.
Diet diversity
Another component of healthy eating is dietary diversity, meaning eating a variety of foods.
Following a diet that’s rich in different kinds of food supports your gut bacteria, promotes a healthy body weight, and protects against chronic disease.
Still, eating a variety of foods may be difficult if you’re a picky eater.
If that’s the case, try to introduce new foods one at a time. If you don’t eat many vegetables, start by adding a favorite veggie to one or two meals per day and build from there.
Although you may not enjoy trying new foods, research shows that the more you’re exposed to a food, the greater your chances of growing accustomed to it.
Macronutrient ratios
Macronutrients — the main nutrients you get from food — are carbs, fat, and protein. (Fiber is considered a type of carb.)
Generally, your meals and snacks should be balanced between the three. In particular, adding protein and fat to fiber-rich carb sources makes dishes more filling and tasty.
For example, if you’re snacking on a piece of fruit, adding a spoonful of nut butter or a bit of cheese helps keep you fuller than if you were to eat the fruit alone.
However, it’s fine if your diet isn’t balanced all the time.
Counting macros and following a set macronutrient plan isn’t necessary for most people — except athletes, people seeking a specific body composition, and those who need to gain muscle or fat for medical reasons.
Plus, counting macros and obsessing about staying within a certain macro range may lead to an unhealthy fixation with food and calories or cause disordered eating tendencies.
It’s important to note that some people may thrive on diets that are low in carbs and high in fat and protein — or low in fat and high in carbs. However, even on these diets, macronutrient counting typically isn’t necessary.
For example, if you feel your best on a low carb diet, simply choosing low carb foods like nonstarchy veggies, proteins, and fats more often than high carb foods will usually suffice.
Highly processed foods
One of the best ways to improve your diet is to cut back on ultra-processed foods.
You don’t have to avoid processed foods completely. In fact, many healthy foods like shelled nuts, canned beans, and frozen fruits and veggies have been processed in one way or another.
In contrast, highly processed products like soda, mass-produced baked goods, candy, sugary cereals, and certain boxed snack food contain little if any whole food ingredients.
These items tend to pack ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and artificial sweeteners.
Research links diets high in ultra-processed foods to a greater risk of depression, heart disease, obesity, and many other complications.
On the other hand, diets low in these foods and high in whole, nutrient-dense foods have the opposite effect, protecting against disease, lengthening lifespan, and promoting overall physical and mental well-being.
Thus, it’s best to prioritize nutrient-dense foods, especially vegetables and fruits.
In a healthy diet, it’s best to restrict certain foods.
Decades of scientific research link ultra-processed foods to negative health outcomes, including increased disease risk and early death.
Cutting back on soda, processed meats, candy, ice cream, fried foods, fast food, and highly processed, packaged snacks is a smart way to improve your health and lower your risk of certain diseases.
However, you don’t have to completely avoid these foods all the time.
Instead, try to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and fish, saving highly processed foods and beverages for special treats.
Foods like ice cream and candy can be a part of a healthy, well-rounded diet, but they shouldn’t be a significant part of your calorie intake.
Food is one of the many puzzle pieces of your day-to-day life. Between commuting, working, family or social commitments, errands, and many other daily factors, food may be last on your list of concerns.
The first step to following a healthier diet is to make food one of your priorities.
This doesn’t mean that you have to spend hours meal prepping or cooking elaborate meals, but it does require some thought and effort, especially if you have a particularly busy lifestyle.
In conclusion, if you’re interested in healthy eating, making a few small changes can get you moving in the right direction.
Although healthy eating may look a bit different for everyone, balanced diets are generally rich in nutrient-dense foods, low in highly processed foods, and comprised of filling meals and snacks.
This guide may help those who are starting on a healthy eating journey — and act as a refresher for those who know nutrition basics but want to go deeper.
If you want detailed, individualized dietary advice, consult an experienced dietitian.
