Better Eating Habits

Healthy eating (and the Australian diet) should consist of consuming a wide variety of foods. This variety should come from the following five major food groups (refer table below). Eating a variety of foods from these groups can help you maintain a healthy (interesting) diet that will ensure your body is receiving the adequate nutritional requirements. This will also offer you protection from diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown in a western society such as Australia, people aren't getting the variety from fruit and vegetables, a large percentage of people are getting the variety from sweets, snacks, condiments (e.g. gravy, spreads, margarine, salad dressing and mayonnaise). Poor eating habits can ultimately lead to obesity and the onset of diseases.

THE FIVE MAJOR FOOD GROUPS

1. Fruit
2. Vegetables, legumes
3. Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes
4. Bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles
5. Milk, yoghurt, cheese

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating Pie Chart.

How many serves of each group should I consume each day?

Examples of serving size from the 5 main food groups (Link)

SOME WAYS TO INCLUDE THE FIVE FOOD GROUPS IN YOUR DIET

It's not hard to include foods from the major food groups into snacks and meals. Here are some suggestions:

• Fruit - easy to carry as a snack or it can be included as a part of most meals. For example, try a banana with your breakfast cereal, an apple for morning tea and an orange for an afternoon snack. Start the day by adding a 100% fruit juice to your breakfast. Drink a fruit smoothie. Have fruit salad for dessert or eat dried fruit instead of sugary sweets.
• Vegetables and legumes - raw or cooked vegetables can be used as a snack food or as a part of lunch and dinner. Salad vegetables can be used as a sandwich filling. Vegetable soup can make a healthy lunch. Stir-fries, vegetable patties and vegetable curries make nutritious evening meals. Try raw vegetables like carrot and celery sticks for a snack 'on the run'. Add vegetables to your favorite entrée. Take raw vegetables platters to snack on at work
• Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes and tofu - these can all provide protein. It's easy to include a mixture of protein into snacks and meals.
• Bread, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles - grains and cereals come from a wide variety of sources including breakfast cereals (oats, muesli and wholegrain flakes), wholemeal breads and biscuits, rice, barley, corn and varieties of pasta.
• Milk, yoghurt and cheese - eat a diverse range of dairy foods including milk, cottage cheese, yogurt and other types of cheese

WHY YOU SHOULD EAT SMALL, FREQUENT MEALS?

By skipping meals and not eating regularly you are depriving your body of energy but also slowing your metabolism, which is conductive to weight gain. Instead, try eating smaller meals spread out in two to three hour increments. You'll find that your energy levels are sustained throughout the day and there will be little or no change in your metabolic activity.

10 MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

1. A dramatic or rapid fat loss is not possible in a short period of time. Fat loss is slow.
2. The recommended use of appetite suppressants can be very dangerous and unwise.
3. Manufactures often claim that there product has a unique ingredient, often the case that this ingredient will do anything of benefit
4. Avoid fad diets, simple facts are that fad diets cannot provide long term weight loss.
5. Some dietary fats cause weight gain. Fats contain approximately double the amount of kilojoules (calories) per gram than carbohydrates or protein, making them a much more concentrated form of energy. It makes sense that, if you eat a lot of fat, you are more likely to put on weight than if you eat a lot of carbohydrate. The type of fat you eat may also be important
6. There are some magical foods that cause weight loss. Some foods, such as grapefruit or kelp, are said to burn off body fat. This is not true.
7. Carbohydrates make you fat. It was once advocated that the key to weight loss was the elimination of all high carbohydrate foods, including pasta, rice and potatoes. We now know that carbohydrates are the body's preferred energy source. If you eat more calories than you use then whether those calories come from carbohydrate, fat or protein, you will put on excess weight. This is harder to do with high carbohydrate foods than high fat foods. Eating a diet high in carbohydrate (and also fibre) is likely to crowd fat out of the diet.
8. Diets extremely low in energy (i.e. No CHO) do result in weight loss initially. This loss is due to the loss of protein and glycogen storages. The loss of weight is gained once diet ceases and often extra weight gains are recorded due to slowing of your metabolism
9. Exercise increases your appetite. Appetite is actually more manageable after exercise. Furthermore, any slight increase in food intake from physical exercise is more than offset by calories expended by the exercise
10. There is no better way to lose weight than with aerobic exercise.. Aerobic exercise (like cycling, walking, or swimming) speeds up your metabolism for 4 to 8 hours after you stop exercising. Therefore, additional calories will be burned off long after you finish working out--an advantage over non-aerobic exercise like weight lifting, which does not speed up your metabolism.

The rules to lose weight is a combination of aiming for a healthy weight by changing your eating habits, becoming more active, understanding your body and by feeling good about yourself.