Keys to Healthy Eating

You can enjoy the foods you like and still control your weight. The key is to be sensible about how much you eat and to balance your caloric intake with caloric burn-off (physical activity).

Here are some suggestions that can help:

• Exercise what you eat. If your goal is to prevent weight gain, the balance between what you eat and the calories your body burns needs to be about equal. Anything left over gets converted to fat.
• Less is more. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body burns. One way to accomplish this is to eat smaller portions and less high-calorie food.
• Avoid further weight gain. If you are not ready to tackle losing weight, focus your efforts on not gaining more. Often, becoming more active and cutting out high-calorie snacks and beverages will help you to stay at your current weight.
• Maintain a balance. Combine a variety of lean proteins (chicken, fish, and low- and nonfat dairy products) with complex carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes) and plant fat (canola oil, olive oil, nuts, and seeds).
• Eat breakfast. Starting your day with a stomach full of healthy food and not going more than 4 to 5 hours without a meal or snack helps to control your appetite throughout the day.
• Chew the "right" fat. We all need some fat in our diet. Olive oil, canola oil, and soy oil all contain a healthy type of fat. Limit your intake of saturated fat found in meats, whole-milk dairy products, and tropical oils like palm kernel and coconut, and "trans" (partially hydrogenated) fats found in many margarines, chips, and packaged baked goods. These types of fat boost cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. They also contribute to weight gain.
• Be prepared. Sticking with a healthy diet is often made more difficult by our surroundings. We're bombarded with ads for high-calorie snack foods, and there seems to be a fast-food outlet on nearly every city block. Resisting these temptations takes work, but it can be done! Be prepared by carrying your own healthy snacks with you.
• Skip the supersize. An extra-large order of fries contains around 600 calories. That's more than you'll find in most burgers at fast-food outlets. Read the printed food guides available at most fast-food restaurants that provide calorie and fat information for their menu items.
• Rethink that drink. Alcohol is a source of hidden calories. You can lower the number of calories you get from alcohol by drinking light beer, using sugar-free tonic or other low-calorie mixers, and cutting down on the number of drinks that you consume. Most sports drinks, juices, and "health" or "vitamin" waters contain lots of added sugar, and that means lots of extra calories. Try water or a diet beverage instead. Learn more about the sugar content in popular drinks and find healthy alternatives.
• "Fat-free" doesn't mean home-free. Don't stop reading after you see "fat-free" on a package. Foods labeled fat-free may have more calories and harmful additives than the high-fat foods they are meant to replace. Check the ingredients on food labels to identify the amount and type of fat, calories, and nutrients per serving.
• Out of sight, out of mind. Keep "impulse foods" (chips, candy, ice cream, and soft drinks) out of sight -- or out of the house completely -- if this is a trouble spot for you or others in your family.

Reviewed by: Keith Bachman, MD, March 2007
©2007 Kaiser Permanente

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