How To Eat Healthy: Making Easy but Healthy Decisions

This is part 2 of 3 in series about "How To Eat Healthy".

Part 2 of 3: Making Easy but Healthy Decisions

1. Drink plenty of water.

Staying hydrated with basic H2O is an easy and dramatic way, to improve your health and shed pounds, all the while helping you feel full. Drink water in the mid of meals and avoid drinking after and before a meal, to aid digestion. Try to consume between 2 and 3 liters per day.

If you feel like snacking, try drinking a full glass of water first. Some people confuse thirst for hunger, and eat a 400- or 500-calorie snack when a glass of water would have helped them feel satiated. If you're still hungry 15 minutes after your drink, then it's time for a snack.

Try carrying water with you so you can easily pick it up when you're thirsty.

2. Avoid soft drinks, juices, sports and energy drinks, as well as other products containing artificial sweeteners.

Giving up sugary drinks is one of the easiest ways, you can instantly improve your diet and become healthier. A can of coke adds 139 extra calories to your diet. A glass of grape juice will set you back even more. Try drinking water only to improve and aid digestion. A white chocolate crème frappuccino has whopping 500 calories. While it's okay to treat yourself with these and other drinks every once in a while, it's not a good idea to make them a regular part of your diet.

3. Participate in Meatless Mondays.

Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to give up eating meat one day per week. Eating less meat can have several health benefits, as most people already have enough protein in their diets. In fact, vegetarians and vegans weight less than meat-eaters, and live longer on average.

4. Stay away from fast food.

As we all know fast food is bad for our health, yet it continues to remain a weekly staple for too many people. For one, fast food is often fried, processed, and excessively salty. Add soft drinks and fries and your meal could easily burn through half of your suggested caloric intake for the day. To add insult to injury, much of the fat contained in fast food is trans fat, the worst kind of fat.

Read also: 8 Health Take To Work Snacks

5. Drink one glass of wine or beer occasionally, but be wary of more.

Adults who drink a glass of wine or beer with their meal report numerous health benefits, including improved memory function, reduced bacterial infection, and even boosted estrogen levels.Unfortunately, what may be good in small doses can be destructive in larger doses. Any more than two drinks of alcohol per day is probably detrimental for your health.

Red wine, in particular, contains polyphenol, called resveratrol that scientists believe is particularly heart-healthy. Resveratrol improves the function of blood vessels in the heart and curbs the amount of "bad" cholesterol in your body.

Are you pregnant and worried about drinking? While it's normal for expectant mothers to abstain from alcohol, scientists say that it's perfectly harmless to drink one glass of wine a day.

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