To live a healthier lifestyle, the first step is to take a look at the foods you eat. Our diets affect so many aspects of our lives from our weight to our energy levels, mood, and overall health.
If you’re looking for a few simple ways to improve your diet today, you’ve certainly come to the right place! Check out these simple ways to improve your diet and feel better too.
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1 . Try healthy apps
To help you to eat healthier and track your progress, there are several healthy eating apps that can help you out.
- Green Kitchen: The Green Kitchen app is a fantastic tool to learn how to cook yummy vegetarian dishes. The app includes over 150 different meals, many of which are low sugar, low gluten, and low dairy. You might not be a strict vegetarian, but if you want to eat more vegetables, this is the app you need!
- Epicurious: Using the Epicurious app, you can access lots of fun food-themed videos, and plenty of delicious recipes. With so many healthy options available, this is the app to improve your diet. Features of the app include personalized shopping lists, smart timers, and handy search filters.
To get your health back on track, healthy eating apps are an excellent resource.
2. Eat mood-boosting foods
What we eat doesn’t just impact our body, but it also affects our mind. To help you improve your mental health, you need a healthy diet full of mood-boosting foods. So which foods exactly are mood-boosting? Here are a few to start you off:
- Almonds: These nuts are an excellent food to boost your mood; they contain protein, magnesium, vitamin E, and fiber. As well as helping to boost your mood, almonds are a good source of antioxidants.
- Fish: Eating fish is sometimes recommended for those who experience anxiety, depression, or low moods. As well as lifting your spirits, fish can help to improve cognitive function.
- Spinach: This leafy green is packed with all the nutrients and antioxidants you need. Eating spinach can help your body to reduce levels of oxidative stress.
For further mood-boosting options try chocolate, red peppers, kefir or bananas.
3. Plan your meals
If you want to eat healthier, it’s wise to plan out your weekly meals. When we are disorganized, or in a rush, we tend to make unhealthy choices. At the beginning of the week set aside some time to plan out healthy dishes, and shop for these ingredients only. To support your meal planning, apps such as ‘Treetop Table’ can be useful. Planning your meals can help to organize your shopping lists, save money, and reduce waste.
4. Take supplements
There are many supplements that can be great as part of a balanced diet. To give your health a boost, try the following:
- Lectin blockers: Lectins can be found in foods such as cereal, dairy, legumes, and grains. Many people have digestive complaints when it comes to lectins. If you know that you are sensitive to these foods, it can be useful to take lectin blockers to improve your digestion.
- Vitamin B: Although this vitamin can be found in many foods, some individuals like to take a supplement to ensure they are getting enough. There are many benefits of consuming vitamin B, including aiding digestion; improving nerve function; maintaining energy levels; and growing red blood cells.
5. Improve your gut health
To improve your gut health, you’ll need to focus on getting the right foods in your diet. These options will help you to improve your digestive system:
- Yogurt: When you eat yogurt, you’ll be getting a great source of probiotics; these are live yeasts and bacterias, which are beneficial for the digestive system.
- Kimchi: This is a tasty Korean dish made with fermented vegetables. The fermentation process means you’ll get all the probiotic benefits from eating Kimchi.
Generally speaking, all types of fermented foods and drinks are excellent options to improve your gut health.
6. Eat more green foods
Simple but effective, green vegetables are packed with all the minerals and nutrients you need to stay healthy. Get into the habit of having vegetables for the main part of your meal, with slightly smaller portions of carbs and meats (or fish).
Many people praise the raw food diet for its health benefits. The diet is based on the idea that vegetables retain more of their nutrients before they are cooked. Those who don’t like vegetables very much might like to mix them with fruits and drink them as a smoothie. (When you mix vegetables with fruits, the sweetness of the fruit often overpowers the earthy vegetable flavors)!