6 eating habits everyone should learn
1. Drink enough water
You need to drink water. This speeds up M. Boschmann, J. Steiniger et al. Water-induced thermogenesis / The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism metabolism. Blood plasma is 92–95% water, and the liquid helps the circulatory system to cope with its functions. With water, oxygen and glucose are supplied to the brain, which are necessary for nervous activity. Water removes metabolic products and toxins from the brain. But its deficiency can cause Dehydration / Mayo Clinic headaches, feelings of fatigue, problems with the digestive tract.
There is no universal rate of water consumption. Focus on two indicators:
- Feeling thirsty. If you have it, you need to drink it.
- Urine color. It should be colorless or light yellow, otherwise you don't drink enough.
How to develop a habit
The main life hack: water should always be at hand. Otherwise, you will be too lazy to get up every time to drink, and you will do it less often than you really want. Place a bottle of water on your desk and sip every time you feel thirsty. Always carry the smaller container with you in your bag and do not forget to refill.
In addition, there are various applications that allow you to keep track of the amount you drink. Their main disadvantage is target performance. In an effort to reach your target, you can drink when you don't feel like drinking, or hastily pouring fluids into yourself late at night to achieve your goal. But if you love numbers and gamification, you can try it.
2. Eat more vegetables and fruits
Plant foods are beneficial for preventing cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. The fiber they contain helps the digestive tract work better and reduces High intake of dietary fiber and whole grains associated with reduced risk of non-communicable diseases / ScienceDaily the risk of non-communicable diseases.
We know about the benefits of vegetables and fruits since childhood, but it is not always possible to eat them in sufficient quantities. Moreover, the latest studies by D. Aune, E. Giovannucci et al. Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer and all-cause mortality — a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies / International Journal of Epidemiology say the norm is 500-800 g per day, and this a lot.
How to develop a habit
Here, the same as with water: if you want to eat more vegetables, make them more accessible. To make the plan come true, you have to think about why vegetables are an infrequent guest on your table.
Perhaps you would love to eat cabbage salad every day, but you are too lazy to chop it with a knife. Then your choice, a food processor with a shredder. He will grind the head of cabbage in a matter of seconds, and all that remains is to rinse the bowl and knives with water, even a sponge is not needed.
Or, over and over again, you buy a vegetable that you don't like, because you are guided by information from the outside, and not by your own feelings. Let's say celery is really healthy, but if you hate it, then it will settle like a dead weight in the vegetable drawer.
Wash the fruits and immediately put them on the table, so there is more chance that your hand will reach for them by itself. Prepare vegetables for consumption as well. Cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, small pieces of cabbage will be quickly eaten if they are in plain sight.
Finally, just make sure there is an herbal supplement in every meal you eat. It can be annoying at first, but gradually you will get used to it.
3. Keep a food diary
People tend to be delusional about the amount eaten. We tend to underestimate SW Lichtman, K. Pisarska et al. Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects / The New England Journal of Medicine food volumes, even if we know that we will be rechecked. Therefore, it is highly likely that you yourself are not aware of your eating habits.
A diary will help you understand how things really are, and learn a lot about yourself. For example, it seems to you that you are eating enough vegetables, but in reality you are limited to two cucumbers a day.
How to develop a habit
Write down what you ate, how much and in what quantity, immediately after a meal, or even before it, if you can refrain from supplementation. Choose a convenient way to record information: in a paper notebook, a document in the cloud, or a calorie counting app.
By the way, about the latter. If you love accuracy in everything, you can also find out how many calories you consume. The results will be approximate, since you cannot tell how much nutrients will be absorbed from a particular food. But this information can already be used to correct eating behavior. True, all food will have to be weighed: in the matter of calculating calories, everything is already too approximate to estimate the portion size by eye.
4. Eat less sugar
Modern man consumes too much sugar, because it can be found almost everywhere. It is found not only in soda or baked goods, but also in ketchup, instant cereals, and sausage.
The incidence of type 2 diabetes, liver failure, tooth decay, obesity and other unpleasant things are associated with excessive sugar consumption. So it is simply necessary to control its amount in the diet.
How to develop a habit
Start small: When thirsty, drink water, not juice or soda. By avoiding these drinks, you will already be reducing your sugar intake. Switch to unsweetened teas and coffees.
Limit your consumption of desserts, make it meaningful. Instead, add a serving of complex carbohydrates in the form of cereals to the diet. This will make it easier to tolerate giving up sugar.
Finally, cook more yourself. Manufacturers sin by adding sugar to products where you would never expect to see it. So you can resist this only by getting up to the stove yourself.
5. Pay attention to the composition and calorie content of food
Reading is helpful, especially when it comes to food labels. For example, you might find out that your favorite healthy muesli bar is half sugar and outperforms chocolate in calories. Such an entertaining reading will give you many discoveries.
How to develop a habit
Learning labels takes time. Therefore, plan your trips to the store so that you have these free minutes. Be sure to eat before shopping, otherwise the rumbling belly can drown out the voice of reason. And of course, do not take your fellow travelers with you, who will stand and whine while you dig there for so long.
6. Regularly eat dairy products
One serving of fermented milk product per day helps MB Zemel, W. Thompson et al. Calcium and dairy acceleration of weight and fat loss during energy restriction in obese adults / Obesity Research to lose weight and reduce M. Chen, Q. Sun et al. Dairy consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis / BMC Medicine 18% risk of type 2 diabetes. However, it is better to choose options without sugar: they are healthier.
How to develop a habit
If you find a product that you like, there will be no problem building a habit. But, as a rule, our knowledge about sour milk is limited to kefir and sweet yogurt. Not everyone likes the first, the second often contains too much sugar. But there is a choice.
To get started, try everything that shops offer, such as fermented baked milk, kefir, Snowball, acidobifilin, varenets, natural yogurt. Among them, you will surely find what you like. If there is no product for your taste, try combinations. For example, make a kefir-based smoothie.