6 Simple Diet Game-Changers

By Paula Spencer, Caring.com senior editor

If making a commitment to “eating healthfully” seems like an overwhelming chore, think more strategically. Opt for a few simple tweaks. Certain small changes serve up huge, lifelong benefits that can help you lose weight, ward off disease, and sustain a better mood and more energy all day long.

“It’s all about self-care,” says Beth Reardon of Duke Integrative Medicine and Caring.com’s senior food and nutrition editor. “You have to ask, ‘Am I worth a little extra effort to think about what I’m putting in my body?’ You — and the body that you rely on — deserve nothing less.” Start with these six simple diet game-changers:

1. Add more fat–healthy fat–to your diet.
Why? Many adults, especially baby boomers, have been brainwashed into thinking fats equal calories and should be avoided. But the body needs fat to function. (After all, 60 percent of the brain is fat.) Not all fat is alike, and not all fat calories — researchers increasingly believe — are alike either. “Some fats seem to bind with receptors in the nucleus of the cell and cause the body to metabolize them better,” Reardon says.

Healthy fats include many nuts, seeds, avocado, extra-virgin olive oil, and canola oil. “Eating nuts and avocados doesn’t make you fat — but not eating them might,” Reardon says. Unlike calories from saturated (bad) fats, healthy fat calories are essential to the body’s metabolism. They keep you performing well, and they satisfy hunger better.

How? Use extra-virgin olive oil and canola for much of your cooking. Don’t be shy about adding a small amount of olive oil, with flavored vinegar, to a salad if it makes it taste better, so you want to eat more salad. (Bonus: Less sodium and sugar than processed bottled dressings.) Mash avocado and spread it on your sandwich in place of mayonnaise. Snack on raw almonds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, and walnuts — four kinds of nuts and seeds with great lipid-lowering ability — or add them as toppings or ingredients to cereal, vegetable dishes, or foods.

Tip: Buy a flaxseed grinder (or coffee grinder) and add freshly-ground flaxseed to anything from cereal and baked goods to vegetables and smoothies. Flax is a rich source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids as well as antioxidants and fiber, and it’s been shown to reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol. Because whole flaxseed tends to be less well used by the body, grinding the seeds before use provides more benefit.

6 Simple Diet Game-Changers originally appeared on Caring.com.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Lika S.

1:51AM PDT on May 17, 2011

And for breakfast, replace the juice for a piece of fruit. The extra fiber will keep you full longer. Save the 100% fruit juices for that quick energy you need late in the afternoon, when it's too late to eat before supper, but you need that little pick me up because lunch was "so long ago".

send a green star

criss S.

7:54AM PDT on May 15, 2011

Thank you for the article.

Andrea S.

7:40AM PDT on May 14, 2011

Go vegan or vegetarian. It's the best thing you can do for your body! :)

Sarah Z.

6:35PM PDT on May 12, 2011

Thank you

rene d.

4:33PM PDT on May 12, 2011

thank you!

Rachel H.

2:36PM PDT on May 12, 2011

Great tips!
Although, I would exchange canola oil for coconut oil. Everything I've been reading and hearing says that canola oil isn't any better for you than vegetable oil. However, coconut oil is very good for you! And is the only one that doesn't change on a molecular level when heated. (You shouldn't cook with olive oil because of this.)
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/10/15/cooking-oil.aspx
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/03/24/coconut-oil-part-one.aspx