Have your healthy New Year’s habits already begun to fade? Recharge your resolutions during National Nutrition Month® with help from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Tel Hai Dining and Nutrition Services.
In celebration of the 2015 National Nutrition Month theme, “Bite into a Healthy Lifestyle,” we are encouraging everyone to adopt eating and physical activity plans that are focused on consuming fewer calories, making informed food choices and getting daily exercise in order to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
A healthy lifestyle offers more than just weight loss alone, it promotes overall health and decreases your risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Now is the time to invest in yourself and improve your quality of live by eating right and staying active.
We recommend choosing nutrient-rich foods and beverage. Here are some tips for healthful food choices:
– At every meal, fill half your plate with a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables.
– Make at least half the grains you eat whole grains, such as whole-wheat bread and pasta, quinoa, oats and brown rice. Check the food label, the first ingredient listed should be “whole grain” or “whole wheat.”
– Choose healthy protein sources, such as lean meats and poultry, seafood, beans and peas, eggs and nuts and seeds.
– Eat low-fat dairy foods. If you’re sensitive to lactose, try calcium-fortified soy beverages.
– Limit foods with added fats, sugars and salt.
Not only should we eat nutritious foods for optimal health but we all should try to include physical activity as part of our daily routine. Adults should get at least 30 minutes and children at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity every day.
Sybil Oswalt, RD, LDN
