Healthy Eating Can Be Fun and Easy

Healthy meals don’t immediately equate to boring. One of the beauties of cooking is the fact that you can put your creativity to the test. In the mood for pizza? No problem, there’s a healthy version! Love pasta but want to eat fewer carbs? Not a problem there, switch to zoodles! Always have a sweet tooth? You’re covered there as well with thousands of low-calorie and healthy dessert recipes.  It’s absolutely possible to eat delicious and nutritious meals each and every day all while still enjoying what’s on the plate. From breakfast to desserts, these tips will help you out in cooking healthier meals. 

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Begin by making a meal plan

It’s important to understand that eating healthy doesn’t mean that you’re going to be eating boring salads all day. You can still enjoy some of your favorite dishes but with newly added flavors. What do you usually eat each day? What do you eat throughout the day? Is it junk food? Something already fairly healthy? What type of cook are you?

Do you reach out and try to cook up something simple? Are you one who goes for microwaveable meals or are you okay with taking a few extra steps if it means having a good meal? It’s best to really reflect on how you cook, your eating habits, and what sort of changes you’d like to incorporate. Setting up a plan is the first step towards success.

Look for recipes you’ll enjoy

Eating healthier gives you the chance to try out new food combinations, cook in new ways, and pair up flavors. It is truly something that can be a lot of fun. Recipes are abundant from blogs to video content online that you can go to for inspiration. Something such as sauteed swiss chard is not only delicious but it’s jam packed with nutrients as well. You have to nourish your body, watch your calories, and you can do these while tantalizing your taste buds at the same time. Just have some fun with it, go sit down and go through some interesting YouTuber channels, check out Pinterest for some fancy food bloggers, and even look around at your local bookstore for some of the best-selling cookbooks that focus on healthy living.

Mix up your protein

Meat is a great source of protein though it tends to be served in large portions. Meat is great but pork and other red meats are linked to high cholesterol. This doesn’t mean you need to switch to an all-vegan diet, but it’s best to be open to new sources of protein. Plant protein is not only more affordable, it can be just as delicious and nutritious as meat., not to mention that it’s environmentally friendly as well. Many different types of plant protein such as peas are excellent for boosting brain health and memory.

Limit your sugar and salt intake

Sugar and salt are both great ways to make food taste better, they’re also two important components for baking as well. However, eating too much of either of these can be harmful to your health. These put you at risk for health conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular complications. While there are alternatives to salt and sugar, they don’t make such a major difference. Using natural sweeteners such as fruit or honey can help the sugar intake while using herbs and spices can help replace the need for salt.

When cooking healthier meals, just add a minimum amount of salt, and let everyone add salt as needed to individual meals. Everyone has different taste buds and some people don’t need as much salt as others. Additionally, use healthier salts as opposed to bleached table salt. Himalayan sea salt is a great alternative.

Understand healthy fats

Not all fats are bad! There are healthy fats and unhealthy fats. You want to make sure that you get healthy fats in your meals each day. Fat is very filling, nutrient-rich in vitamin A and K, plus healthy fats are super tasty. Some examples of healthy fats include:

• Olive oil
• Avocado
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Fish
• Dark chocolate

These are all super healthy and super tasty, so never skip out on these.

Eat a rainbow

Eating a rainbow of different colors not only makes your plate of food look much prettier but also helps you have the chance to pair more nutritiously-packed foods together. You don’t need to just eat colorful salads when it comes to eating a rainbow of food. You cook a variety of meals with multiple vegetables such as Thai curries, Turkish salads, southern-European-inspired dishes, or anything to your liking. Even getting the chance to cook with global flavors will give you the chance to expand your palette, cooking skills, and the number of healthy ingredients used in your meals. One of the biggest rules to cooking delicious meals is all about having fun and enjoying what is it that you’re doing.