When you live a busy lifestyle, it's easy to let healthy eating fall to the wayside. It's even more challenging to eat well when there are so many fast-food and processed food options to tempt you with their taste and convenience. Even some "healthy snacks," like sugary protein bars, are also basically candy in disguise.
The good news is healthy eating can dramatically improve your life. Although weight loss could be one byproduct of eating well, there are so many reasons to incorporate better nutrition in your life.
1) Enjoy an Energy Boost
When you're feeling sluggish and unmotivated, the problem may not be about how much rest you're getting. Instead, it could point to your diet and a need for more nutritious food options. Here's a short list of a few foods that help increase your energy:
- Oatmeal
- Chicken
- Eggs
- Oysters
- Beans
- Berries
- Dark chocolate
If you're not sure where to start, you can pack in the nutrition and focus on well-balanced, healthy meals with a subscription plan. Whether you're an athlete or eat gluten-free, we have meal plans that work for your preferences and lifestyle.
2. Improve Your Focus
Overeating processed foods or simple carbs can lead to decreased concentration and memory. Instead, you can optimize your cognition with the right foods. Blueberries, fatty fish like salmon, green tea, pumpkin seeds, and leafy green vegetables are just a few places to start.
Beyond the right foods, focus on vitamins. Zinc, iron, Vitamins C and B, and magnesium are all critical to brain function. A quality multivitamin can help, but it doesn't replace healthy eating.
3. Disease Prevention
A poor diet filled with saturated fats, processed foods, and cholesterol can directly lead to diseases, including heart issues. Fortunately, the reverse is true. Focusing on healthy eating can also help with disease prevention. Research shows eating more fish, poultry, beans, and old grains can help get on top of your health.
4. Enhance Your Skin
Are you suffering from dull, dry skin or acne? Refining your eating habits could help. Always a superhero on any food list, fatty fish, including salmon, are excellent for skin and other parts of your body, like brain function. Avocados, walnuts, sunflower seeds, bell peppers, broccoli, and tomatoes are also cornerstones of healthy skin.
5. Assist Your Mental Health
Studies show that healthy diets can ease symptoms of depression and anxiety. Unhealthy diets fuel your gestational tract, often called the "second brain" and lead to mood crashes and fluctuations. When you eat too much sugar, your GI tract gets inflamed and promotes bad bacteria, which is detrimental for your overall brain health.
Bananas, berries, coffee, beans, lentils, and fermented foods all help boost and stabilize your mood. Fermented foods also create valuable probiotics that support healthy gut bacteria and could potentially raise serotonin levels.
6. Increase Longevity
Restoring health and vitality potentially lead to a longer and more stable lifespan. Some foods protect against some cancers, stabilize blood sugar, benefit the cardiovascular and boast anti-diabetic effects.
Cruciferous vegetables, including cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, are shown to protect blood vessel walls from inflammation. Crisp and juicy pomegranates, beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms are also good for your health.
7. Strengthens Bones
Developing strong bones is essential for living an active lifestyle and daily functions, like walking or climbing stairs. But as we age, we need more focus on bone health and staying strong.
There's plenty on the list to help you eat for healthy bones, including milk, cheese, and other dairies. Add plenty of green leafy vegetables, soybeans, tofu, nuts, bread made with fortified flours, and sardines, all help with bone strength.
8. Boosts Immunity
You could be compromising your immune system when you don't prioritize rest and nutritious food. Citrus fruits with Vitamin C, ginger, red peppers, spinach, yogurt, and green tea help your immunity. Turmeric, an ingredient commonly found with curries, is high in curcumin and helps increase immunity while decreasing exercise-induced muscle damage.
9. Support Healthy Pregnancies
The old saying, "you're eating for two," holds true, but it is really about nutrition and health. Adding more fruits with Vitamin C, like kiwis and alma, and green leafy vegetables all help boost your immune system during pregnancy. Expecting mothers should ask their doctors about the best meal plans for their needs.
10. Maintain a Healthy Weight
Healthy eating leads to a healthy weight. It's not so much about losing weight as finding and maintaining a healthy weight. Crowd out your diet with more fruits, vegetables, lean meats, some dairy, and whole grains, and limit the sweets and processed food. Over time, your weight should stabilize, and you will find a healthier set-point that fuels you with energy, focus, a stable mood, and immune-boosting power.
Ready to Enjoy the Benefits of Eating Healthy?
Get on top of healthy eating and nutrition with FitTrax's meal plans ranging from 7 to 21 meals at a time. Or you can create custom meals on your own through our A La Carte option with our bulk items to maximize your favorite flavors and nutrients. Get started today.