5 Keys to a Healthy Diet

To maintain healthy eating habits, focus on foods that not only nourish, but also bring joy

- Caroline Hopkins Legaspi

NEW YORK - Ask any reputable dietitian or nutrition scientist about how to eat healthfully, and they will probably tell you to avoid dieting.

Many diets emphasize restriction, whether it is of calories, carbohydrates, fats or something else. And that is not a healthy strategy, said Ms Alison Brown, a nutrition researcher at the National Institutes of Health. Diets like these can cause you to miss out on the range of nutrients your body requires, she added.

A better way to maintain healthy eating habits, she said, is to focus on foods that not only nourish, but also bring joy. That can be challenging when nutrition fads are coming and going with seemingly increasing speed, and often conflicting advice. Is saturated fat the enemy or not? Are we all deficient in protein?

Turns out, the best ways to foster healthy eating are also the simplest. Here is how.

1. PRIORITISE WHOLE FOODS

Not all processed foods are unhealthy, but they are often stripped of beneficial nutrients, Ms Brown said. And they may contain high levels of ingredients that can be harmful to health, such as added sugars and sodium.

Because of this, it is best to consume foods "as close as possible to how they exist in nature", Ms Brown added.

Whole foods such as fruit, vegetables and nuts are packed with many important nutrients. Fibre, for instance, is linked with reduced risks for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. And fruit and vegetables — especially leafy greens and berries — contain beneficial compounds that can reduce inflammation.

In a recent study of nearly 50,000 women, scientists found that those who ate more whole grains, fruit, vegetables and legumes were more likely to age in a healthy way than those who ate fewer of those foods.