As you enter the New Year, you may find yourself reflecting on old habits you’d like to leave behind in 2023. Perhaps your New Year resolution is health focused? More specifically, it might be to eat a little better.
Navigating the world of nutrition and health can feel overwhelming at the best of times, let alone in the New Year when everyone is suggesting a hundred different ways to eat.
To help you cut through the nutrition ‘noise’ and steer clear of nutrition misinformation this New Year, here are just three of my top tips as a nutritionist.
Tip 1: Focus on eating your 5-a-day
I know – you’ve been told this hundreds of times. But, eating your 5-a-day is really important. Fruits and vegetables are bursting with nutrients to support all aspects of good health. Quite simply, no healthy, balanced diet is complete without fruits or vegetables.
Within fruits and vegetables, you’ll find fibre which has heaps of health benefits. Fibre helps bulk out your poo, making it easier for you to go to the toilet. This helps prevent constipation. Not only this, but your friendly gut bacteria survive by feeding off of a type of fibre known as prebiotic fibre. This can be found in fruits and vegetables such as apples, asparagus, bananas and leeks.
It’s not only fibre you’ll find in fruits and vegetables, but vitamins and minerals too. All too often, I hear someone reaching for a vitamin supplement before they take a look at their diet to see what foods they could eat instead. Take vitamin C for example, which is a supplement people commonly take when they feel a cold coming on. Rather than reaching for a supplement, why not include oranges, strawberries, broccoli or bell peppers in your diet? These are all abundant in vitamin C. More often than not, nutrients are better absorbed from food than they are supplements.
Tip 2: Eat 30 plant foods each week
Research suggests eating 30 different plant foods each week is beneficial for your gut bacteria. You’ll often find me talking about gut bacteria (this is the second time I’m bringing it up in this article!) because of how important they are to good overall health. So much of your health can be pinpointed back to your gut, of which gut bacteria play an important role. For example, it’s thought approximately 70% of immune related cells are found within the gut. This means keeping a happy, healthy gut is critical.
Before you worry – I’m not asking you to eat 30 different fruits and vegetables each week. Plant foods also include grains, lentils, beans, pulses, potatoes, herbs and spices. Essentially, if it comes from a plant, it counts!
Tip 3: Avoid caffeine after 2pm
If you’re partial to a cup of coffee (or energy drinks) to get you through your day, it’s best that you stop drinking these after 2pm.
Caffeine is a stimulant, helping keep you alert, but it can hang around in your body for many hours after you’ve finished drinking. Research suggests caffeine can stay within the body for anywhere between 2-12 hours. If drunk too late in the day – such as past 2pm – you run the risk of disrupting your sleep.
Good sleep is the foundation to good health, and a night of poor sleep can negatively affect your eating habits the following day. For example, your energy levels may be low, causing you to reach for sugary food for a quick energy boost.
Steer clear of nutrition misinformation
Regardless of your health and wellbeing related New Year resolution, steer clear of anything that seems too good to be true. Sometimes, the most simple of changes can lead to the best improvements in your health – just look at the tips from this article, none of them are complicated!
