What Is Healthy Food?

We are all searching for healthy food to deliver instant weight loss, health and happiness. I might as well get this out of the way early. There isn’t one. So there, take a moment to process that.

Relax. Many healthy foods are readily available, easy to cook and use, and have significant health benefits. They just don’t come with a single daily dose sachet. No surprise there, then.

The Fear of Healthy Food

A basket of what we know to be healthy food, fresh, brightly coloured vegetables and vivid fruit is beautiful, but it can also be daunting.

There are many reasons why lots of us avoid fresh raw ingredients. For many of us, cooking every meal from fresh, natural ingredients doesn’t seem possible, and others feel they don’t have the practical skills and knowledge to turn raw ingredients into a delicious meal.

Time & A Place For Nutrition Supplements

There are some great supplements available, many of the best ones we stock in our online store, but that’s not what this article is for. The best way to lose weight, improve your vitality, improve your overall health and lead a balanced is to eat fresh, healthy food that you cook, and this article will give you some ideas of how and where to start.

Be Inspired By Food

Speaking from experience, I didn’t get motivated about healthy food and eating until I had worked out what I liked. By this, I mean the flavours, cooking styles and balance.

My Food Story

A bit of background on myself to give this some perspective. I didn’t eat a single green vegetable until I was in my late teens while backpacking in Asia. So the dishes I experienced while travelling were a million miles away from the boiled, braised and mashed cabbage, swede or carrot used to garnish my plate. Instead, a dish usually consisted of meat and potatoes of one variety.

The experience of eating flash-fried kale on a busy road in Bangkok turned my culinary head forever. Although, until this point, food had been nothing but an inconvenience, eating was something I did because it hurt if I didn’t, not because it felt good or I enjoyed it.

Physical Benefits of Healthy Eating

Aside from my newfound enjoyment of eating, I also noticed physical benefits. Immediately noticeable, going to the bathroom wasn’t a long, drawn-out affair. After a week or so of my new diet, I was getting off to sleep more accessible and waking with a clearer head. I felt lighter on my feet and had significantly more zest for life.

To wrap up about me and get back to how eating healthy foods is possible no matter where you live, I am now a vegetarian and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Let The Food In Your Life

We can put bells and whistles on it, but humans are animals. As with any animal, it was in optimum physical condition is paramount to ensuring its survival, whether hunting on the plains of the Serengeti or fighting for your place in the queue at Starbucks.

To maintain optimum fitness, we must give the body the necessary nutrients. Sounds easy.

Finding Your Niche

Finding foods that interest you is the best way to allow nutrition into your life. The internet and endless TV cooking shows make this more accessible than a decade ago.

Try out different cooking styles. Asian wok frying, Moroccan tagines, or indoor barbecuing can add theatre and flavour to meal times.

Keep experimenting and break the rules. Inventing your genre of cooking is a surefire to get yourself hooked on meal times. It is also a great way to involve family and friends and make dinner parties more enjoyable.

Build A Holistic, Healthy Lifestyle

Use meal times as a platform to create an overall balanced lifestyle. Try not to press yourself or those you live with too hard. Change should be incremental and positive.

Getting involved in crash diets or eating regimes that include skipping meals or any other unsustainable action is a surefire way to fail by indulging food as a hobby, and making it an integral part of daily life will improve the likelihood that your lifestyle changes will become permanent.

Start With Baby Steps

Take things easy. It’s easy to get over-ambitious. But, taking baby steps, to begin with, your interest in food and nutrition will build up your knowledge and experience of food.

Try to avoid the rubber band effect. By expanding too quickly in a new direction, we risk over-stretching and recoiling, undoing all the good work we have done.

Make sure you enjoy the food you eat at meal times. I know that sounds bizarre, but it’s true. Although it’s common to go extreme when changing your eating regime, try not to lose sight that eating should be enjoyable.

Reading Labels & Researching What You Eat

Often getting to know food is an excellent way to start letting food take a more significant role in your life. Reading labels and understanding what food manufacturers add is a great way to get motivated. It’s often shocking, especially regarding foods marketed to children, but that’s in another post.

I am keeping an eye out for local food fairs and exhibitions. It is a great way to get involved. Health food comes in many different forms; finding foods that have great flavour and deliver nutrients isn’t hard when you know where to look.

Supermarket Sweep

Most supermarkets now stock a wide range of foods from around the world, but you might have to dig for them. Because health foods appeal to a niche market, and those who want them are prepared to find them, they usually get tucked away on out-of-the-way shelves.

Mangosteen is an excellent way of quickly incorporating healthy, nutritious food into everyday meals. Currently, mangosteen juice drinks appear on supermarket shelves across the UK, but unless you were looking for them, you probably wouldn’t know.

Healthy Food & Longterm Healthy Eating

Plan your transition to healthy eating by becoming excited about food. Healthy food isn’t scary. It’s just a different colour shape.

By getting to know your food, it soon becomes apparent that the food already closes at hand is some of the best available. For example, British asparagus is a healthy food that comfortably holds its own with any new-age superfood.

Experimenting with new cooking methods will make meal times more inspiring. In addition, by buying healthy food, you will intuitively start eating healthily.